It is nowadays generally agreed that a person's information seeking depends on her tasks and the problems encountered in performing them. The relationships of broad job types and information seeking characteristics have been analyzed both conceptually and empirically, mostly through questionnaires after task performance rather than during task performance. In this article, the relationships of task complexity, necessary information types, information channels and sources are analyzed at the task level on the basis of a qualitative investigation. Tasks were categorized in five complexity classes and information into problem information, domain information and problem solving information. Moreover, several classifications of information channels and sources were utilized. The data were collected in a public administration setting through diaries, which were written during task performance, and questionnaires. The findings were structured into work charts for each task and summarized in qualitative process description tables for each task complexity category. Quantitative indices further summarizing the results were also computed. The findings indicate systematic and logical relationships between task complexity, types of information, information channels and sources.

The present study investigates how chief executive officers in the Canadian telecommunications industry acquire and use information about the external business environment, an information seeking activity known as environmental scanning. Data were collected by a nationwide questionnaire survey and several focused interviews. Of the 113 CEOs in the study population, 67 returned completed questionnaires, thus giving a response rate of 59 percent. Personal interviews were then conducted with eight of the respondents. The chief executives collectively perceive the Technological, Customer, and Competition environmental sectors to have the greatest Perceived Strategic Uncertainty – these sectors were perceived to be the most strategic, variable and complex. For each environmental sector, the Amount of Scanning of the sector is positively correlated with the Perceived Strategic Uncertainty of that sector. Generally, the chief executives use multiple, complementary sources in environmental scanning. Personal sources such as customers and subordinate staff are very important in both scanning and decision making, and they are used more frequently than impersonal sources. Nonetheless, impersonal sources such as publications and reports are also frequently used in scanning. In decision making, environmental information from internal sources is used more frequently than that from external sources. For many of the information sources, the frequency of source use is

access to the managers we spoke to and surveyed, and the managers themselves who so generously gave us their time and thoughts about these issues. We would also like to thank Jennifer Aaker, Sally Blount, Kathy Eisenhardt, Pam Haunschild, Robert Sutton, Michael Morris, Lara Tiedens, George Wu, the associate editors, and the anonymous reviewers who gave us so many helpful comments on drafts of this paper. 2 This paper compares how managers value knowledge from internal and external sources. Although many theories account for favoritism toward insiders, we find that preferences for knowledge obtained from outsiders are also prevalent. Two complementary case studies and survey data from managers demonstrate the phenomenon of valuing external knowledge more highly than internal knowledge and reveal some mechanisms through which this process occurs. We found evidence that the preference for outsider knowledge is the result of managerial responses to 1) the contrasting status implications of learning from internal versus external competitors, and 2) the availability or scarcity of knowledge—internal knowledge is more readily available and hence subject to greater scrutiny, while external knowledge is more scarce, which makes it appear more special and unique. We conclude by considering some consequences of external knowledge preference for organizational functioning. 3 1.

Before the Web, the story of online information services was largely one of over-estimates and unmet expectations. This study examines sustained use and non-use of online services within organizations in a way that overcomes limitations of the traditional approaches that repeatedly led to exuberant usage projections. By adopting an opensystems view, we see that firms in highly technical and highly institutional environments have many more incentives to gather data and go online than do firms in low-tech, unregulated industries. But firms make important choices about partnering and outsourcing that can shift informational activities across organizational boundaries. Our analysis focuses on the informational environments of firms in three industries: law, real estate and biotech/pharmaceuticals. This environmental model provides richer conceptualizations about the use of information and communication technologies, including Internet technologies, and better projections about future use. In support of our analysis, we briefly discuss insights from an ongoing intranets study informed by an informational environments perspective. 2 Before the Web, There Was Online... When someone says "online " we think about Internet technologies, like the Web, intranets and extranets. And when we think about what motivates people to use these new information and communication technologies (ICTs), we often focus on the needs, capabilities and preferences of an individual. However, much of what we "know " about going

This study explores factors that may explain choices between the library and Internet? The hypothesis that repository satisfaction, accessibility, and usefulness predict actual choice was tested using data from a competitive information acquisition task. It was found that repository choice was a function of library satisfaction and usefulness, but not library accessibility, nor Internet accessibility, satisfaction, and usefulness. The findings suggest that these common predictors of use were inadequate. Research and practical implications are discussed. 1.

Emerging (or "inchoate") industries differ significantly from mature industries. Inchoate industries are characterized by few producers, underdeveloped markets, unclear technologies, and uncertain regulatory forces. Traditional, linear-adaptive approaches to business strategy derived from the study of mature industries, such as Miles and Snow (1978) and Porter (1980), are not applicable to inchoate industries. In this paper, we argue that an interpretive approach to studying organizing and strategy-making -- specifically Daft and Weick's model of organizations as interpretive systems (1984) -- is better suited to the context of industry emergence. Daft and Weick's typology of interpretive stances distinguishes the manner in which managers attempt to make sense of equivocal and uncertain environments, and hence is independent of an industry's maturity level. This study is the first attempt to operationalize the Daft and Weick typology. Propositions and preliminary evidence pres...

Why would managers choose to acquire information from the world wide web? In attempting to answer this question researchers are likely to be guided by theories which match information requirements to the type of task, theories of information retrieval, theories of the properties of information, and information channel selection theories. This is a complex theory base for a research project. This paper provides a review of these theories and then speculates about how the web may be used by managers.

CEOs SCAN THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT for information about events and trends in order to plan their organizations ’ future courses of action. This study investigates how CEOs in the Canadian publishing and telecommunications industries acquire and use information about the business environment. The uncertainty of the environment was found to be related to the amount of scanning done. The perceived quality of information sources and the environmental uncertainty accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in source use. Information about the environment was often used in making decisions concerning organizational improvements and business strategies.

We extend the Western strategic management literature on environmental scanning to the entrepreneurial context by surveying business owners in two countries. Specifically, using the framework of Daft, Sormunen and Parks (1988), we test how perceived environmental uncertainty in seven environmental sectors and information accessibility influence scanning frequency of venture owners in the U.S. and India, two dissimilar entrepreneurial settings. Overall, entrepreneurs in India scan more frequently than do U.S. entrepreneurs, and the perceived rate of environmental change and accessibility of information are associated with their scanning. In the U.S., only perceived information accessibility prompts scanning. These results, which depart from inferences drawn from samples of managers in the Western literature, offer potential for extending scanning theory by cross-culturally broadening the theoretical nexus between organization theory, strategy and entrepreneurship in more fully understanding scanning behavior. Key Words: entrepreneurship, scanning, strategy 2 The literatures of organization theory and strategic management are replete with discussion of the influences of environmental complexity and volatility on organization decision-making, structure and

Emerging (or “inchoate”) industries differ significantly from mature industries. Inchoate industries are characterized by few producers, underdeveloped markets, unclear technologies, and uncertain regulatory forces. Traditional, linear-adaptive approaches to business strategy derived from the study of mature industries, such as Miles and Snow (1978) and Porter (1980), are not applicable to inchoate industries. In this paper, we argue that an interpretive approach to studying organizing and strategy-making – specifically Daft and Weick’s model of organizations as interpretive systems (1984) – is better suited to the context of industry emergence. Daft and Weick’s typology of interpretive stances distinguishes the manner in which managers attempt to make sense of equivocal and uncertain environments, and hence is independent of an industry’s maturity level. This study is the first attempt to operationalize the Daft and Weick typology. Propositions and preliminary evidence presented here are based on a cross-case cluster analysis of eight organizations in the Web publishing industry. INTERPRETIVE STANCE 2 Increasingly, managers and scholars are recognizing that emerging industries represent a critical strategic and competitive arena. Hamel and Prahalad (1994) observe the most important strategic problems of today concern those industries currently in the embryonic stage. Yet there is very