The scope of external information-seeking under uncertainty: An individual-level study

Abstract

As a first attempt to empirically investigate the scope of external information-seeking under uncertainty, this paper examines the direct and interactive effects of task uncertainty on the scope of external information-seeking. Search depth and breadth are the two components of the scope of external information-seeking in defining an individual's external information search strategy. The empirical results show that at the source portfolio level, task uncertainty exhibits positive effects on both the depth and breadth of external information-seeking. It is also found that there is a positive relationship between task uncertainty and depth-first propensity, which is defined as a seeker's propensity to acquire information through increasing search depth instead of through widening search breadth at the source portfolio level. Furthermore, the results show that the positive relationship between task uncertainty and depth-first propensity in external information-seeking is stronger when perceived source accessibility is low than when it is high. This study makes a contribution to the information-seeking literature by helping us understand how task uncertainty and source characteristics shape an individual's external information-seeking at the level of source portfolio and providing evidence of the task-source fit perspective in explaining information-seeking behaviour under uncertainty at the source portfolio level.

Introduction

Information-seeking behaviour is an important kind of consciously intended behaviour in social and business contexts, and is defined as the “purposive acquisition of information from selected information carriers (e.g., messages, sources and channels)” (Johnson, Donohue, Atkin, & Johnson, 1995, p. 275). As a process in which information needs are satisfied, or in which problem-solving or decision-making takes place, information-seeking has been studied in multiple disciplines such as information science, communication, computer science, and psychology (Case, 2007). Because information-seeking cannot be separated from the specific context in which it occurs (Johnson, Case, Andrews, Allard, & Johnson, 2006, p. 570) and there exist significant influences of contextual factors on information-seeking behaviour (Johnson, 2003, Johnson et al., 2006, Savolainen, 2008), researchers in various fields have been concerned with the relationship between uncertainty and information-seeking (Wilson, Ford, Ellis, Foster, & Spink, 2002, p. 705). As suggested by the theory of uncertainty reduction, the primary motivation of information-seeking is to deal with and reduce external and internal sources of uncertainty at both organisational level (Berger & Calabrese, 1975) and individual level (Tushman & Nadler, 1978) in decision-making or problem-solving processes. Besides, extensive research has convincingly shown the influence of task on information-seeking (Leckie et al., 1996, Li and Belkin, 2008, Solomon, 2002). Task the seeker is engaged in has been emphasized as a fundamental factor in the context of information-seeking (Kim, 2009, Vakkari, 2003). Accordingly, the task-based approach is widely adopted in information-seeking research (Ingwersen & Järvelin, 2005).

In spite of the difference in context and subjects, the information-seeking literature generally postulates that external information is important to problem-solving and decision-making at both the individual level and the organisational level. Along with the increase in perceived uncertainty on the part of seekers, their reliance on external sources of information will significantly increase (Anderson et al., 2001, Blandin and Brown, 1977). However, it should be pointed out that the present study extends previous literature in following ways. First, the present study is the first attempt to empirically explore the effect of task uncertainty on individuals’ external information searches at the source portfolio level, whereas the literature focuses on use frequency within each of those external information sources (e.g., O’Reilly, 1982, Savolainen, 2008) or what factors affect an individual's selection and usage of one information source over another in a given situation (e.g., Anderson et al., 2001, Xu et al., 2006). In doing so, this paper introduces breadth and depth as two components of the openness of individuals’ external information search strategies.¹ The first concept refers to external search breadth, which is defined as the degree of concentration in source use that individuals rely upon in their external information-seeking. The second concept refers to external search depth and is defined in terms of the extent to which individuals draw deeply from different external sources. Thus the present study seeks to examine how task uncertainty and source characteristics determine the breadth and depth of individuals’ external information-seeking.

Second, as indicated by previous studies, information source characteristics and task uncertainty have a strong impact on information-seeking behaviour (e.g., Byström, 2002, Byström and Järvelin, 1995, O’Reilly, 1982, Tiamiyu, 1992). However, the preceding studies on information-seeking say relatively little about the way in which the interactions between task characteristics and source characteristics influence external information-seeking behaviours. This study addresses the influence of the interaction between task uncertainty and source characteristics (especially the perceived information accessibility of a source portfolio) on the scope of external information-seeking, which is less discussed and empirically examined in the literature.

Third, the present study puts its focus on the work of R&D professionals² in new product development, which is information intensive. The importance of information-seeking for R&D professionals is highlighted by Court, Ullman, and Culley (1998), who found that respondents spent 20–30% of their time acquiring, using and communicating information. Besides, R&D professionals in new product development make greater use of multiple external information sources than do other professional groups in different task settings (even including scientists and engineers in research laboratories). R&D professionals from different technical fields or even different functional areas are required to perform a variety of activities in parallel, interacting with each other and exchanging information frequently during technical problem-solving in new product development (Kwasitsu, 2003, von Hippel, 1994). More importantly, the problem of the literature that failed to capture the variations in task environments³ can be better solved by using R&D professionals in new product development as the research sample.

Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to examine the direct and interactive effects of task uncertainty on the scope of an individual's external information-seeking under uncertainty, in terms of search depth and search breadth in the context of new product development. More specifically, this study seeks to shed some light on the following research questions. First, at the source portfolio level, how would task uncertainty affect the depth, breadth and depth-first propensity⁴ of an individual's external information-seeking? Second, will task uncertainty and source characteristics interactively determine the scope of an individual's external information-seeking in terms of depth-first propensity? The rest of the article is organised as follows. Section 2 gives the conceptual background and hypotheses of the study. Section 3 contains the sample, data and measures. Section 4 gives the research results and findings. The discussion and conclusion are presented in Sections 5 Discussion, 6 Conclusion, respectively.