Contributing to Knowledge-based Decision Support: A System Dynamics Model Regarding the Use of Nonrenewable Resources

In dynamic business contexts where knowledge is continually evolving and thus critical for betterorganizational performance, not only knowledge re-use but also knowledge re-creation becomes moreand more important. One of these contexts is the use of non-renewable resources in innovative hightechproducts. Since media recently spread – often contradictory – news about the increasing scarcityof non-renewable resources, decision makers face a high degree of uncertainty. They struggle tounderstand and handle the information available. Therefore, it is essential to provide amethodological approach to externalize and combine expert knowledge of a system’s inherent logic.Hence, in this paper we show that mental models of experts can be transformed into an explicitsimulation model in order to support decision makers comprehending the short- and long-termdynamic interdependencies of the development of non-renewable resources on demand, supply, andprice. For this purpose, we combine known cause-and-effect relationships into an integrated modelusing the system dynamics methodology. The application of the idea to capture knowledge in asimulation model is exemplarily instantiated with real-world information for the case of indium.[...]