Acquisition, assessment and use of business information by small- and medium-sized businesses: a demand perspective

Geographic context has been shown to be an important factor in determining the supply of business information available to firms. However, such studies often ignore the demand for such information by businesses. Using a mail survey and fieldwork, the authors investigate business information demand issues for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in mature industries. Results show that these businesses have distinct preferences for both particular information sources as well as differing qualitative assessments of the sources' credibility, relevance and availability. Thus, studies of organizational information behaviour in a regional context should attend to the demand side of business information behaviour to avoid mis-reading the benefits of geographic location.