Title: The impact of delays in decision-making on combat forces

Authors: Giteak Roh; Seongam Moon; Kyunghwan Choi

Addresses: 8th Corps in Republic of Korea Army, 36-2, Gan-ri, Sonyang-myeon, Yangyang-gun, Gangwon-do, South Korea ' Department of Defense Management, Korea National Defense University, 1040 Hwangsanbeol-ro, Yangchon-myeon, Nonsan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea ' School of Defense Science, Korea National Defense University, 1040 Hwangsanbeol-ro, Yangchon-myeon, Nonsan-si, Chungcheongnam-do, South Korea

Abstract: Timing of decision-making plays a crucial role in determining victory or defeat in war. Human decision-making cannot always be reasonable due to bounded rationality. This paper discusses the effects of decision-making delays by a commander on combat outcomes in military operations. We construct a simulation combat model based on the Lanchester model, system dynamics, and the Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) doctrine to numerically verify and analyse this. As a result of the simulation, we learn three lessons. First, the longer the commander's decision-making delays, the lower the combat winning rate. Second, the larger the size of the reserve forces, the more sensitive the decision-making delays are to the battle outcome. Finally, it is practical to intensively operate reserve forces of the same size rather than sequentially. This paper contributes to the analysis of decision-making delays by the commander of military operations, which is referred to as a qualitative factor close to reality.

Keywords: decision-making delays; combat modelling and simulation; behavioural operations management; BOM; reserve forces; military operations.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2026.153528

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2026 Vol.40 No.1, pp.131 - 146

Received: 06 Jul 2022
Accepted: 05 Mar 2023
Published online: 12 May 2026 *

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