| Summary: | The purpose of this study is to design, develop, and evaluate a prototype scenarioassisted
decision support system (DSS) for use in venture and alternative assessment
during the predevelopment stage of income-producing real estate development. This
research examines theoretical underpinnings and associated advancements related to
income-producing real estate development and decision support systems. Particular
emphasis was placed on synthesis of relating disciplines?? models and advancements that
support design and development of the decision support system. The result of the
system design and development are embodied in a prototype scenario-assisted decision
support system for income-producing real estate development (DSSVenture). The design
and development of the program are documented in this dissertation.
Following the design and development stage, the validation of DSSVenture??s data
and logic models was conducted based on two case studies from well-known real estate
development publications. The system was then tested on a group of graduate students
who enrolled in an advanced real estate development course at Texas A&M University
to examine whether its facilitation objective had been achieved. Since this research
hypothesized that the decision support system would facilitate developers?? decision
making during predevelopment stage of income-producing real estate development,
three operational variables were tested, namely number of alternatives examined, time to
reach decisions, and coefficient of projected net present value variations.
The testing results indicate that DSSVenture system significantly enhances
comprehensiveness of the decision context by increasing the number of alternatives for
developers. Since the use of the system significantly reduces developers?? time to reach
decisions, the efficiency of decision making is improved. Finally, the results of the
study confirm that the use of DSSVenture system substantially diminishes variation of
profit projection among decision makers. Therefore, the facilitation objective is
achieved.
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