An Exploration of the Potential of Augmented and Virtual Reality in Strategic Management: Immersive Visualizations of Future Scenarios
In environments of rising uncertainty, practitioners in strategic management increasingly turn to digital technologies to augment their limited decision making capabilities. Yet, despite their growing technological maturity and expanding domains of application, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies have received little attention within the digitalisation of strategic management. Their potential to augment strategic, long-term decision making processes remains overlooked. This thesis addresses this gap in two parts. The first, theoretical part explores the unique potential of AR/VR to deliver cognitive augmentations. It begins by analysing how digital tools are used in the field of Augmented Cognition (AC) to overcome cognitive limitations, deriving a technology-agnostic framework of cognitive augmentations. It then identifies which of these cognitive augmentations are uniquely enabled – in ways or to degrees that other digital tools cannot achieve – by the main features of AR and VR: immersivity, interactivity, and situated visualization. It proposes that AR/VR are uniquely valuable for (I-II) the immersive consumption of simulated and recorded experiences, (III) gamified interactions, and (IV) in-context data ergonomics, thereby establishing the case for adopting immersive technologies. Finally, it applies the unique augmentation potential of AR/VR to challenges in roadmapping practices, adopted here as a proxy for strategic management more broadly, therefore exemplifying the potential of immersive tools in augmenting strategic decision making. The second part of the thesis focuses on VR. It provides empirical evidence through two studies on its eﬀects on perception and decision making when it is used to visualise future scenarios. The first study, a between-subjects experiment, compared 2D video with a basic VR experience. Results shows that basic VR can enhance perceived scenario qualities when the scenario aligns with participants’ prior beliefs about the future, but may backfire, reducing perceived quality when the scenario conflicts with them. This eﬀect on scenario perception did not translate into significant diﬀerences between the two media in strategic reorientation decisions, suggesting that more complex, prolonged or repeated VR exposures may be necessary to elicit measurable eﬀects on strategic decision making. The second study, an exploratory observation with eye-tracking, investigated how participants engaged with immersive visualizations of scenarios. Findings indicate that participants’ attention focused on specific elements and areas (e.g. human figures, backgrounds, initial viewpoints). VR novices showed greater eﬀort in exploring the immersive scenarios. Limited exploration of the scene, observed in several participants, did not depend on prior VR experience. These insights are distilled into preliminary design guidelines for visualising scenarios using VR and propositions for future research. Overall, this thesis advances our understanding of how digital technologies can address human cognitive limitations. Specifically, it represents the first exploration of how AR/VR can augment cognition in the context of strategic management. Its practical contributions include a framework to support the design of cognitive augmentations, and empirically grounded guidelines for implementing VR in the visualization of future scenarios.
AR, augmented cognition, augmented reality, cognitive augmentation, decision making, eye tracking, roadmapping, scenarios, strategic management, virtual reality, VR
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