Examining the Effectiveness of the Approach of Visual Metaphor Instructional Design for Management Education: A Multi‐Aspect Theoretical View of Flow Experience and Perceived Task Value

ABSTRACT Background Visual metaphors (VMs) have gained significant attention from cognitive linguists for their ability to help learners understand linguistic structure. However, few studies have explored how incorporating a VM‐supported instructional design can help instructors elucidate the abstract concepts of the business model canvas (BMC) to enhance student learning. Objectives This study aimed to investigate undergraduate students' learning of the BMC via the use of instructional videos that incorporate VM procedures, animations, texts and drawings. Methods This study applies flow theory to the development of the proposed research framework, and a quasi‐experimental design was employed with 185 student participants. Data collected from the participants via a survey, as well as pretest and posttest were analysed via partial least squares. Results and Conclusions The results indicated that VM‐supported instructional design significantly impacted students' self‐efficacy, flow experience, perceived task value and perceived learning performance. However, those variables had no significant impact on actual learning performance (i.e., actual knowledge gain). Implications The implications for theory and practice are discussed to offer valuable suggestions to instructors and researchers regarding the application of VM‐based tools/procedures to the teaching tasks of the BMC or other management‐related learning subjects.