Tell me 'Why' or 'How' - A Heuristic to Choose between Quantitative and Qualitative Systems Analysis, paper in online proceedings

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide a heuristic that can help to decide whether qualitative or quantitative system dynamics modeling is useful in organizational modeling projects. The heuristic depends on the initial problem formulation, in form of a question to be answered. The argumentation is based on conceptual musings and on two short case studies to exemplify the usage of the heuristic. The value of the paper lies in the offering of an easy-to-use approach for a highly relevant decision in practical settings. Further research in this area should focus on a more theoretical distinction between quantitative and qualitative modeling.