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ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING: THE EFFECTS OF TASK COMPLEXITY AND SOURCE ACCESSIBILITY ON INFORMATION GATHERING BEHAVIOR *
Author(s) -
Culnan Mary J.
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
decision sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.238
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1540-5915
pISSN - 0011-7315
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5915.1983.tb00180.x
Subject(s) - task (project management) , field (mathematics) , data collection , business , marketing , knowledge management , computer science , psychology , management , mathematics , economics , statistics , pure mathematics
ABSTRACT This field study investigated the use of nine information sources (personal subscriptions to periodicals, company library, data bases, superiors, subordinates, peers, internal documents, consultants, and other outsiders) for environmental scanning by 362 professionals employed in the corporate headquarters of two large commercial organizations. The usage frequency of essentially all information sources was positively related to perceived accessibility; however, usage frequency also tended to be positively related to environmental complexity. These results suggest that the information‐gathering requirements associated with an individual's job may necessitate the use of less accessible sources, and this finding represents a break with prior research.