The use of information sources by small Pennsylvania manufacturers

This study was designed to discover (1) sources of information used (a) by the largest number of small business managers and (b) the most often by managers; (2) characteristics of information sources that may inhibit or encourage use (accuracy, accessibility, and speed of return or length of time necessary to retrieve information); and (3) company characteristics that may affect information-seeking strategies of managers (type of industry, size, or level of technology).;Managers from 464 Pennsylvania companies in selected industries (aircraft parts, automobile parts, drugs, soap and cosmetics, computers, and other office equipment) employing 250 and fewer people were sent questionnaires. Those who returned incomplete surveys were contacted by telephone. Entrepreneurs were asked to indicate how many times they had used thirteen information sources in the month before the survey: (1) lawyer, banker, accountant; (2) business acquaintances; (3) consultants; (4) telephone references; (5) friends, relatives, and neighbors; (6) classes and conferences; (7) online databases; (8) books (in office); (9) books (elsewhere); (10) business trade periodicals (in office); (11) business trade periodicals (elsewhere); (12) printed publications from agencies; and (13) other media (audio-visual materials).;Managers were then asked to rate each source for accuracy, accessibility, and speed (rate of return). Descriptive statistics were used to report the percentage of managers who used each source and the frequency of use of each source.;Business-related prefessionals, business periodicals and books located in the office, and business acquaintances were consulted by at least eighty percent of the managers in the month before the survey. These sources were also used four to five times by the largest proportion of managers. Other sources were used less often and by fewer entrepreneurs.;No correlation was found between the accuracy, accessibility, and speed (rate of return) of a source and the frequency of its use. Managers seemed to have different expectations of particular sources. There was also no correlation between company characteristics and managers' use of information sources. There were two correlations between company characteristics and managers' perceptions of information sources. Managers from smaller companies rated human information sources as significantly more accurate than did those from larger companies. Managers from high-technology companies rated human information sources as significantly less time-consuming than did managers from more traditional firms.