Management Visualization in Virtual Reality: A New Dimension for Strategic Management Modelling

Abstract

Strategic management makes extensive use of quantitative and qualitative visualizations like diagrams, models and sketches. Widely established visualizations are for example the SWOT analysis, the business model canvas or the Porter’s five forces diagram. Currently, such visualizations are mainly created on analog formats like whiteboards or on computers with specialized software. Both formats have shortcomings: Analog visualizations can hardly be stored digitally and software lack immediacy and intuitive interactions. This thesis proposes virtual reality (VR) as a novel visualization format which overcomes these shortcomings and combines the advantages of analog and software-based visualizing. Furthermore, multiple additional opportunities are explored, as VR allows the visualization of three-dimensional models, provides enough space for encompassing holistic business diagrams and enables immersive collaborations, where geographically distributed teams can sketch and discuss visualizations in a virtual meeting room. Whilst the benefits of VR for the visualization of information have been discussed in fields like medicine, data visualization and archeology, no study about the implications of VR on strategic management visualization has been found. This research gap is addressed in the thesis by exploring how VR as a visualization format could improve the efficacy of strategic management visualization....