In our previous studies we have shown that knowledge visualization is helpful in facilitating meeting and communicating strategy. Is it so only in Europe?
We are now expanding our cross-cultural experiment to India. We compare the results of people exposed to a textual or visual content.
The results of over 200 subjects in India confirm our previous results, showing that visualizing strategy has a positive effect on behavioral intention. In particular, when people are exposed to a representation of the strategy in the form of a visual metaphor, they like it better and they are more committed to implement it, compared to simple text or a diagrammatic representation. We find the same result pattern all over Asia, while Europeans prefer diagrams.
So what? If you communicate your content (as for example strategy) with knowledge visualization instead of text, your audience will probably like the content better and thus to be more committed to it. If you are communicating to Indians you should prefer visual metaphors, rather than bullet-point text or linear diagrams (like a timeline).
Sabrina Bresciani, Ph.D. 