Three Historical Phases In Research On Visual Knowledge Models

Purpose - The major focus of the current paper is historical analysis of knowledge visualization (KV) field. The great interest and growth of research on knowledge visualization results in the need of defining its present state-of-the-art. The paper addresses the question of solidness of theoretical basis and completeness of empirical evidence within the field. It presents the main results of the critical literature review with the focus on the works of Professor Martin J. Eppler and co-authors, whose articles and books cover broad and diverse area of research on visual business knowledge models. This research team forms the pioneering group in this field and may be called the St. Gallen School of KV.Design/methodology/approach - The papers is based on a systematic literature review of 23 works on the given topic followed by in-depth analysis of the key papers. The analysis was focused on research methods and applied methodology.Originality/value - The paper proposes the novel definition of three phases of KV research: preliminary, empirical and theoretical phase. The first phase answers the question "What are visual business knowledge models? How can different visual knowledge models be classified in accordance with certain business purposes?". It explores wide range of visual models which represent all types of business information. In the second phase, the focus shifts from pure data to business knowledge with the main research question "How does it influence on business processes?". It explores number of visual business knowledge models via empirical research. In the third phase, research is aimed at answering the question "Why?". Namely, why it works this way, why there are certain restrictions, and why combination of visualization procedures is more efficient.Practical implications - The papers may serve as an introduction to the researchers to state-of-the-art of the modern KV field. For managerial practitioners, it shows the rich palette of popular business diagrams (mind maps, concept maps, business diagrams). It also cautions managers about the existence of cognitive pitfalls related to visualization, suggesting to pay attention to emotional and social aspects of their use.