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Information Seeking Behavior and Context: Theoretical Frameworks And INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOR AND CONTEXT: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS AND AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF SOURCE U S E NARESH KUMAR AGARWAL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2009 INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOR AND CONTEXT: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS AND AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF SOURCE U S E NARESH KUMAR AGARWAL (B.A.Sc. (Comp. Engg.) Hons., NTU) A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS SCHOOL OF COMPUTING NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2009 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This PhD journey has been a turning point in my life. It helped streamline my life in the direction it was meant for. When it comes to thanking, faces and names flash up in a moving cloud. Let me try and list the most prominent names in the cloud: My supervisor, A/Prof Danny C.C. Poo for supporting me throughout – for training me on all aspects of academic life My co-supervisor, Dr Yunjie (Calvin) Xu, without whom this research wouldn’t have been possible My evaluators and reviewers, whose comments have helped improve my work Senior researchers Professor Brenda Dervin (Ohio State University), Professor Tom D. Wilson (University of Sheffield), Professor Nicholas J. Belkin (Rutgers University), Professor Donald Owen Case (University of Kentucky), among several others, whose work I’ve been inspired by Dr Pan Shan Ling, for being a mentor and guide, for training me as a reviewer, and for his uninhibited praise before others in international conferences Professors, who through their courses, trained me on various areas of research – Dr Caisy Hung Yu-Ting (provided the first training on paper reading, review and analysis), A/Prof Teo Hock Hai (IS research methodologies), A/Prof John Lim Lai Huat (IS theories/IS research methodologies), Dr Pan Shan Ling (case study research), Dr Yunjie (Calvin) Xu (Quantitative Methods), among others i Prof Bernard Tan, whose advice I’ll remember – that there is only one thing one needs to do consistently to be successful, and that is to recognize (and deal with) one’s own mistakes faster than what others would do The excellent support staff of School of Computing – Ang Cheng Lian, for being there, Kwok-Gwee Siew Ing, for processing travel claims, Theresa Koh for ensuring vegetarian food during lunches, Devi for her affectionate concern Project group mates – Manisha Kathuria, Shantanu Singh, among others who exemplified what great teams are made of Lab mates, Yu Xiaohui, Faezeh Karimi, Lek Hsiang Hui and other Honors year students over the years who have been a joy to know and be with Friends and well-wishers – Rohit Joshi, for advising me on getting to NUS; Prateek Prakash, Rakesh Gupta and Pawan Pandey, for helping me decide between an enticing industry job offer and a PhD Those who assisted me in the data gathering and entering process – Sumeet Nagdev, Shivajee Dewangan, Yu Xiaohui, Faezeh Karimi, Kevin Neo Yong Sheng, among others, as well as the 352 people who responded to the survey Numerous other people who are too many to list, but whose names and contributions shall remain with me Last, but most importantly, my wife, Archana, for her support and sense of independence, which allowed me to take this path; for her bravery in handling 7 months of pregnancy all alone; and for the beautiful Eesha, who was born just in time to see her father get a PhD. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................. I TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................................................... III SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... V LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... VIII LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................ X CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION .......................................................................... 1 1.1 Related Concepts .............................................................................................................. 2 1.2 Review of the Information Seeking & Information Retrieval Fields .................................... 8 1.3 Motivation and Research Contribution of Study 1 ........................................................... 11 1.4 Motivation and Research Contribution of Study 2 ........................................................... 14 1.5 Organization of the Thesis .............................................................................................. 17 STUDY 1 – TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK OF INFORMATION SEEKING AND INFORMATION RETRIEVAL ............................................................................................ 19 CHAPTER 2 TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK OF INFORMATION SEEKING AND INFORMATION RETRIEVAL ............................................................................................................. 20 2.1 Review or theory? ........................................................................................................... 21 2.2 Towards an Integrated Framework ................................................................................. 21 2.3 Existing Models and their mappings to the Integrated framework .................................... 23 2.4 Process of deriving the framework .................................................................................. 37 2.5 Simplified Framework .................................................................................................... 38 2.6 Framework or causal model? ......................................................................................... 40 2.7 Other limitations? .......................................................................................................... 41 2.8 Framework or Methodology?.......................................................................................... 42 2.9 Summary of Study 1 ........................................................................................................ 46 STUDY 2 – A CONTEXT-BASED INVESTIGATION INTO SOURCE USE BY INFORMATION SEEKERS .......................................................................................................... 49 CHAPTER 3 INVESTIGATING SOURCE USE : THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS O F CONTEXT ............. 50 3.1 Investigating Source Use by Information Seekers ............................................................ 50 3.1.1 Theoretical Approach ............................................................................................................ 53 3.2 Delineating the boundary of 'context' in Information Behavior: Towards a Contextual Identity Framework ................................................................................................................. 59 3.2.1 Definitions of Context ........................................................................................................... 60 3.2.2 Boundary of Context: Contextual Identity Framework ............................................................ 63 3.2.3 Personal Context or ‘My’ context ........................................................................................... 65 3.2.4 Shared context or ‘Our’ Context............................................................................................. 66 3.2.5 Context Stereotype or ‘His’ / ‘Her’ / ‘Their’ Context .............................................................. 74 3.2.6 Relationship between the three views ..................................................................................... 78 3.2.7 Summary of the Contextual Identity Framework ..................................................................... 83 3.3 A Theoretical Framework of Elements of Context ............................................................ 86 3.3.1 Framework of Elements of Context ........................................................................................ 87 3.3.2 Elements of Personal Context ................................................................................................ 92 3.3.3 Elements of Shared Context ................................................................................................... 96 3.3.4 Elements from Interaction between Personal and Shared Contexts .......................................... 99 3.3.5 Elements of Interaction between the three views of context ................................................... 103 3.3.6 Elements of interaction between personal and stereotype/shared contexts .............................. 105 3.3.7 Elements of interaction between shared and stereotype contexts ............................................ 105 3.3.8 Elements of Context Stereotype (or Shared context) ............................................................. 107 CHAPTER 4 EMPIRICAL RESEARCH MODEL AND HYPOTHESES ............................................... 109 4.1 Research Model and Hypotheses ................................................................................... 111 4.2 Source Variables .......................................................................................................... 114 4.2.1 Types of Sources ................................................................................................................. 114 4.2.2 Source Use .........................................................................................................................
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