The Interaction of Causal Attribution of Performance and Compliance with Decision Support Systems in Cyber-Physical Production Systems - An Empirical Study Using a Business Simulation Game

Abstract

Supply Chains and production networks are complex sociotechnical systems whose performance is determined by system, interface, and human factors. While the influence of system factors (e.g., variances in delivery times and amount, queuing strategies) is increasingly well understood, the influence of the interface and human factors is currently insufficiently explored. Previous research has shown that decision support systems may help to enhance performance by improving the interface. In this work, we address the users’ trust in a decision support system. In a user study (n = 40), using a business simulation game, we investigated how four dimensions of attribution theory relate to trust in decision support systems and further to task performance. The results show that human factors, especially trust in automation and attribution theory relate to the performance in the business simulation game. We conclude that attribution relates to job compliance and performance in material disposition tasks and supply chain management.