ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING: THE EFFECTS OF TASK COMPLEXITY AND SOURCE ACCESSIBILITY ON INFORMATION GATHERING BEHAVIOR*
研究了两家大公司362名专业人员使用九种信息来源进行环境扫描的情况，发现来源使用频率与感知可及性正相关，但也与任务复杂性正相关，表明复杂任务可能需要使用更难获取的信息源。
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.