Options
Martin Eppler
Title
Prof. Dr.
Last Name
Eppler
First name
Martin
Email
martin.eppler@unisg.ch
Phone
+41 71 224 2297
Homepage
Now showing
1 - 10 of 11
-
PublicationSlip-Sliding-Away: A Review of the Literature on the Constraining Qualities of PowerPointPowerPoint is a dominant communication tool in business and education. It allows for creating professional-looking presentations easily, but without understanding its constraining qualities it can be used inappropriately. Therefore we conducted a systematic literature review structuring the literature on PowerPoint in three chronological phases (Early Criticism, Heated Debate, and Scientific Take-Off) and identifying 18 constraining qualities classified into three categories: cognitive, emotional, and social. This article provides implications for educators' and practitioners' use (and nonuse) of PowerPoint through synthesis and description of such constraining qualities. Directions for future research are developed by identifying theoretical gaps in literature on PowerPoint.Type: journal articleJournal: Business and Professional Communication QuarterlyVolume: 78Issue: 3
Scopus© Citations 32 -
PublicationDoes method matter? : An experiment on collaborative business model idea generation in teamsThe development of new business models presents a critical and demanding task for organizations. Among other things, the task requires effective divergent and convergent group processes. A growing body of theoretical literature and empirical evidence shows that artifacts can support collaboration, creativity, and innovation in groups. Such artifacts include visual templates, physical objects, and sketches. Based on existing theories on idea generation and boundary objects, this proposal explains how artifacts can facilitate the development of new business model ideas in teams. Specifically, this paper hypothesizes that artifacts have an impact on perceived group collaboration, perceived creativity, and the decision to adopt a new business model idea. The model was tested with an initial experimental study with managers who were asked to develop innovative business models for a daily newspaper, working under one of three different conditions. The subjects worked in groups and were assigned to either: (1) an empty PowerPoint slide (control group); (2) physical objects combined with sketching; or (3) a visual business model template in a software environment. The results of this pilot study indicate that using a digital visual business model template significantly increases perceived collaboration and actually decreases perceived creativity and the willingness to adopt the business model idea generated. Physical objects combined with sketching do not yield results distinct from the control condition of filling out an empty slide. These results provide initial empirical evidence that artifacts have the power to shape the group process of developing new business models, and that the proposed model can capture relevant dimensions of how they affect such a process.Type: journal articleJournal: Innovation: Management, Policy & PracticeVolume: 14Issue: 3
-
PublicationDoes method matter? An experiment on collaborative business model idea generation in teamsThe development of new business models presents a critical and demanding task for organizations. Among other things, the task requires effective divergent and convergent group processes. A growing body of theoretical literature and empirical evidence shows that artifacts can support collaboration, creativity, and innovation in groups. Such artifacts include visual templates, physical objects, and sketches. Based on existing theories on idea generation and boundary objects, this proposal explains how artifacts can facilitate the development of new business model ideas in teams. Specifically, this paper hypothesizes that artifacts have an impact on perceived group collaboration, perceived creativity, and the decision to adopt a new business model idea. The model was tested with an initial experimental study with managers who were asked to develop innovative business models for a daily newspaper, working under one of three different conditions. The subjects worked in groups and were assigned to either: (1) an empty PowerPoint slide (control group); (2) physical objects combined with sketching; or (3) a visual business model template in a software environment. The results of this pilot study indicate that using a digital visual business model template significantly increases perceived collaboration and actually decreases perceived creativity and the willingness to adopt the business model idea generated. Physical objects combined with sketching do not yield results distinct from the control condition of filling out an empty slide. These results provide initial empirical evidence that artifacts have the power to shape the group process of developing new business models, and that the proposed model can capture relevant dimensions of how they affect such a process.Type: journal articleJournal: Innovation: Management, policy & practiceVolume: 14Issue: 3
-
PublicationFacilitating Knowledge Communication through Joint Interactive VisualizationThis paper presents further research findings on the use of software-based, collaborative visual communication tools for the transfer and creation of professional knowledge in organizational decision making contexts. The paper begins by describing typical knowledge communication situations and summarizes dominating problems in these contexts. It then reports on the real-life experiences in using three visual knowledge communication tools, namely the OnTrack visual protocol tool, the Parameter Ruler application, and the Synergy Map. The application experiences with these tools in four companies show that they can reduce some of the discussed problems. Their main benefits are focus, coordination, documentation, consistency, accountability and traceability. Their major improvement areas are accessibility and flexibility. Implications for further research and for further tool developments are highlighted.Type: journal articleJournal: Journal of Universal Computer ScienceVolume: 10Issue: 6
-
PublicationNavicons for collaboration: Navigating and augmenting discussions through visual annotations(IEEE Computer Society, 2015-07-23)
Scopus© Citations 5 -
PublicationKnowledge Visualization for Social EntrepreneursSocial entrepreneurship is an emerging field which has the power to change the way we do business and resolve societal challenges. Visualization has not yet been systematically applied to support social entrepreneurs in creating, growing and scaling their ventures. We thus propose a framework for the use of knowledge visualization in the creation and development of social enterprises. We posit that each phase of the social venturing process requires a different knowledge visualization method. These diverse types of (interactive) graphic representations help social entrepreneurs cope with resource constraints and interact with a great variety of stakeholders. In this contribution we thus show that knowledge visualization can provide versatile and inexpensive ways to augment social entrepreneurs' activities systematically.Type: conference paperDOI: 10.1109/IV.2013.41
Scopus© Citations 6 -
Publication
Scopus© Citations 5 -
PublicationThe Geography of (Visual) Thought : The Effect of Culture on the Reception of Visual Communication( 2011-12-02)
-
PublicationThe Benefits of Synchronous Collaborative Information Visualization: Evidence from an Experimental EvaluationA great corpus of studies reports empirical evidence of how information visualization supports comprehension and analysis of data. The benefits of visualization for synchronous group knowledge work, however, have not been addressed extensively. Anecdotal evidence and use cases illustrate the benefits of synchronous collaborative information visualization, but very few empirical studies have rigorously examined the impact of visualization on group knowledge work. We have consequently designed and conducted an experiment in which we have analyzed the impact of visualization on knowledge sharing in situated work groups. Our experimental study consists of evaluating the performance of 131 subjects (all experienced managers) in groups of 5 (for a total of 26 groups), working together on a real-life knowledge sharing task. We compare (1) the control condition (no visualization provided), with two visualization supports: (2) optimal and (3) suboptimal visualization (based on a previous survey). The facilitator of each group was asked to populate the provided interactive visual template with insights from the group, and to organize the contributions according to the group consensus. We have evaluated the results through both objective and subjective measures. Our statistical analysis clearly shows that interactive visualization has a statistically significant, objective and positive impact on the outcomes of knowledge sharing, but that the subjects seem not to be aware of this. In particular, groups supported by visualization achieved higher productivity, higher quality of outcome and greater knowledge gains. No statistically significant results could be found between an optimal and a suboptimal visualization though (as classified by the pre-experiment survey). Subjects also did not seem to be aware of the benefits that the visualizations provided as no difference between the visualization and the control conditions was found for the self-reported measures of satisfaction and participation. An implication of our study for information visualization applications is to extend them by using real-time group annotation functionalities that aid in the group sense making process of the represented data.Type: conference paperJournal: IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer GraphicsVolume: Vol. 15 Issue 6
Scopus© Citations 53 -
PublicationDrawing Distinctions: The Visualization of Classification(Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2009-09-04)