The Role of Business Information Visualization in Knowledge Creation

Past research suggests that one of the reasons causing Business Intelligence (BI) systems to fall short of expectations could be that certain BI capabilities may not be appropriate for individuals' or organizational challenges. Our research proposes the need to enhance our understanding of information and knowledge processes to address the issue. We evaluate the appropriateness of adopting the implications of information and knowledge processes to Business Information Visualization (BIV) as one of BI capabilities by exploring how data interaction and data representation reduce information-based challenges of uncertainty and complexity, thus enabling the creation of new insights. Formal model and resulting propositions are offered. Research implications suggest that effective and efficient insight generation can be achieved by deploying BI visualization capabilities only if those capabilities result in knowledge workers' perception of lower information uncertainty and complexity. Larger implications of this study for BI, BIV and knowledge creation process are discussed.