Università della Svizzera italiana

Building and managing strategic alliances in technology-driven start-ups : a critical review of literature

Comi, Alice ; Eppler, Martin J.

In this article, we critically review the current literature on alliance formation and management with a particular emphasis on small businesses, and on managerial implications for start-up enterprises. In the beginning of the article, we discuss the advantages and the challenges of inter-organizational collaboration, by taking the perspective of technology-driven start-ups operating in...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Making strategy work : a literature review on the factors influencing strategy implementation

Li, Yang ; Guohui, Sun ; Eppler, Martin J.

Although numerous studies acknowledge that strategies frequently fail not because of inadequate strategy formulation, but because of insufficient implementation, strategy implementation has received less research attention than strategy formulation. In this study, we review the factors that enable or impede effective strategy implementation, and survey the state-of-the-art in this domain. We...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Communicating with diagrams: how intuitive and cross-cultural are business graphics? : results of image sorting experiments with strategy students in the United Kingdom and China

Eppler, Martin J. ; Ge, Jianxin

This article reports on the results of an intercultural card sorting experiment with 104 students in Beijing and Cambridge to identify similarities and differences in the interpretation of visual business communication formats. The results show that English and Chinese strategy students differ dramatically in terms of their similarity and grouping decisions of business diagrams. The results...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Visual strategizing : the systematic use of visualization in the strategy process

Eppler, Martin J. ; Platts, Ken ; Kazancioglu, Emre

In this article, we examine the use of visual representations for the business strategy process (from strategic analysis and strategy development to strategic planning and implementation). Starting with a review of literature, we show that visualization can address many of the cognitive, social, and emotional challenges of the strategy process, if visualization is understood as a participatory...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Knowledge integration in face-to-face communication and the moderating effect of a collaborative visualization tool

Mengis, Jeanne ; Eppler, Martin J.

This paper sheds light on the communication process through which experts and decision makers integrate their domain specific knowledge in decision making situations and argues for the benefit of software-supported visualization of contributions. Understanding both decision making and knowledge integration as communicative processes, we present a short review of literature on the concept of...

Università della Svizzera italiana

A framework for information overload research in organizations : insights from organization science, accounting, marketing, MIS, and related disciplines

Eppler, Martin J. ; Mengis, Jeanne

Based on literature from the domains of organization science, marketing, accounting, and management information systems, this review article examines the theoretical basis of the information overload discourse and presents an overview of the main definitions, situations, causes, effects, and countermeasures. It analyses the contributions from the last thirty years to consolidate the existing...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Knowledge communication problems between experts and managers : an analysis of knowledge transfer in decision processes

Eppler, Martin J.

This article proposes a communication perspective on the problem of knowledge transfer between experts and managers in organizational decision making processes. We outline why this perspective is important and we show where and when knowledge communication matters. After an overview of typical knowledge communication situations in management, we define knowledge communication and differentiate it...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Knowledge visualization : towards a new discipline and its fields of application

Eppler, Martin J. ; Burkhard, Remo A.

In this paper, we establish the concept of knowledge visualization and review the state-of-theart in this emergent domain. We define the concept and differentiate it from information visualization. We describe select background disciplines and potential application fields. Various knowledge visualization types are distinguished and examples of their real-life application are provided and...

Università della Svizzera italiana

Understanding and managing knowledge-intensive conversations : an appreciative reading of the literature on conversations in organizations and an integrative approach for their management

Mengis, Jeanne ; Eppler, Martin J.

This article argues for the central role of conversations in knowledge-transformation processes in organizations. Given the importance attributed to conversations in the literature, but also the many conversational routines that often prevent knowledge creation and sharing, an integrative approach for managing knowledge-intensive conversations is needed. The article reviews the academic...