Visual storytelling for improving the comprehension and utility in disseminating information systems research: evidence from a quasi-experiment

Since the start of human civilisation, storytelling has served as an effective medium for disseminating important knowledge within families, communities and organisations. We make a case for the use of visual storytelling, namely video stories, to supplement traditional scholarly
articles in the Information Systems (IS) discipline, thereby exploring its potential to improve actual and perceived comprehension, perceived utility, satisfaction as well as intentions to cite, share and accept research. Drawing on cognitive learning theory, the cognitive theory of
multimedia learning and the literature on deep processing, we develop our research model, which is based on the model by Jiang & Benbasat (2007). We test our model in experimental settings with 269 research-oriented students and academics who were randomised into four conditions: (1) reading a text-based article, (2) reading the script for a video about the article, (3) viewing the video story of the article and (4) viewing the video story followed by reading the article. Results showed that the article’s script was significantly perceived to be the least useful in disseminating research content. The video story and text-based article were perceived to be equally useful and supplementing the text-based article with a video story was perceived to be the most useful. Moreover, the video story and text-based article supplemented by a video story were of roughly equal effectiveness; yet, the video script was the most effective and the textbased article was least effective relative to other formats in disseminating scholarly knowledge. Last, we discuss how to further improve the design of video stories by referring to the critical narrative theory, which has the potential to significantly promote the dissemination of IS scholarly knowledge.