A Scoring Methodology for Assessing the Suitability of Management Science Models

In this study, five major criteria (realism, flexibility, capability, ease of use, and cost) for evaluating the suitability of management science models for R&D project selection are established, through personal interviews with R&D administrators and management scientists. A suitability rating system, based on these criteria, is used by the author to rate twenty-six management science models for their suitability of use in R&D project selection decision making. Profitablility index and scoring types of models were found to have generally higher ease of use and lower cost performances than the other types. The linear and nonlinear models had generally higher flexibility, while the linear, nonlinear and zero-one models had generally higher realism than the other model types.