An empirical study of interpersonal information seeking for task information

Abstract

Information seeking is a purposive seeking for information as a consequence of a need to satisfy some goal. Since same information can be available from multiple sources, a seeker needs to make decision on source selection to effectively gain information required. Most previous research on information seeking behavior either focused on how to choose an information source or on what affected the amount of information seeking, yet paid little attention to the role of task attributes in relation to information source preference. By considering task importance context, this paper first of all proposed a research model to examine factors influencing information source preference. Then, a field survey was administrated to 161 knowledge workers in a top-tier university in Singapore. The results provide preliminary support for the proposed model and indicate that a seekera??s information source preference is primarily affected by perceived content quality of information sources.