Knowledge Visualization as a new Discipline: Swiss Bias

Knowledge visualization (KV) has drawn the attention of the research community in recent years because of its significant potential in assisting managers to reduce complexity and information overload. The paper intends to identify and characterize the merits of knowledge visualization study as well as its drawbacks, it also suggests directions for the future research development. This aim is achieved by systematic literature review of the visualization studies, which has identified the pioneer research group from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. These researchers proclaimed a birth of KV as a new discipline at early 2000-ies by their systemic impact on information science research. Our paper presents the structured analysis of twenty two selected papers of these Swiss researchers indexed in Scopus and Web of Science databases. Analysis was conducted from the standpoints of collected theoretical knowledge, practice of application, contemporary trends and problems in the knowledge visualization domain. Swiss bias, discussed in the present paper, is related to the fact that only one research group is studying the subject. Problems considered are related to the applied research methods, lack of systematization and weak differentiation of knowledge and data visualization concepts. Works of St. Gallen School significantly contributed to the study of knowledge visualization and revealed perspective directions for future research. Theoretical contribution includes classification of visualization methods, description of visualization's application in business practice, development of boundary objects theory and detailed account for the experiments conducted. Practical contribution in the business includes training projects and creation of new visual models. The papers discuss visual modeling, diagrams classifications, and basics of the proposed approach. Some limitations of the theoretical foundation are revealed in the current paper. Our study gives a clear understanding of further steps to be taken to develop knowledge visualization into an independent discipline. It suggests strengthening the theoretical basis with a structured systemic approach which develops the foundations proposed by the Swiss researchers.