The Use of Information Sources in Private Sector: A Study of Riyadh City

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-106
Author(s):  
Jebril Al-Arishi ◽  
Abdulaziz Al-Emran
2015 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 01-07
Author(s):  
Midrar Ullah ◽  
Kanwal Ameen

The purpose of this study was to find out medical librarians' perceptions towards the importance of information literacy (IL) skills. A structured questionnaire, consisting of eight IL skills, was administered to the head librarians of all academic medical institutions in Pakistan. The respondents were asked to rate the importance of IL skills for their users on a 5-point Likert scale (1- Least important to 5-Most important). A total of 69 (60.5 %) usable questionnaires were returned out of 114 disseminated to the respondents. The IL skills about “accessing the needed information effectively and efficiently”, “identifying relevant, authoritative and reliable information sources”, “recognizing the need for information”, "verifying the relevance and quality of information sources” and “using information ethically and legally” got mean scores exceeding four from head librarians of both public and private sector medical institutions. However, IL skill "evaluating the information critically” received mean score less than four i.e., 3.94 from public sector medical librarians and IL skills "organizing information collected or generated in a logical way" and "using the selected information effectively to accomplish a specific task" although considered important but got lower mean scores (3.97 each) from private sector medical librarians. Respondents from both public and private sector medical institutions had considered all the eight IL skills important for their library users, meaning that library users must be adequately equipped with information competencies.


Author(s):  
Tamás Iványi

In recent years, festivals have become an essential part of summer activities for many members of Generation Z. Programs that last several days also mean significant financial burden for young people, so they gather information from multiple sources before decision-making. The purpose of the study is to examine which information sources – especially social media – and which motivations have become significant in the context of festival tourism's decision process.An online survey was conducted as part of and exploratory research over four consecutive years dealing with the use of information sources and the importance of the music festivals' characteristics targeting the Hungarian Generation Z attendees of festivals. Besides the descriptive statistics cluster analysis and ANOVA tables were used.It can be emphasized that in the case of festival tourism, the influence and usage of social media, relying on the opinions of acquaintances and friends is much more significant in the decision-making phase than in the case of traditional tourism. The program and the leading performers are not the only important factors, but meeting friends, the atmosphere of the festival, and reasonable value for money are also significant. Three groups of users could be identified: those who are mainly browsing official websites and search engines, those who try to make decisions based on earlier experiences, and those who are also looking at social media sites and digest several types of content to make the decision. Organisers of festivals should understand the differences among these groups to create better communication strategies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 416-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erick T. Byrd ◽  
Bonnie Canziani ◽  
James S. Boles ◽  
Nicholas Carlton Williamson ◽  
Sevil Sonmez

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine winery visitors’ use of information sources in making decisions regarding the choice of wineries to visit. Enrichment theory is used as a framework for determining how previous experience influences the decision on how much and what type of information individuals will use when planning a trip using wine tourism as the context for the research. Design/methodology/approach A visitor study was conducted at 23 wineries in the US Southeast. Data were collected from winery visitors using a structured self-administered questionnaire. Findings Results from 832 consumers indicate that an individual’s previous travel systematically influences the number and type of information sources that they will seek out when making future consumer decisions. Findings confirmed the hypothesized expectations about wine tourist information search behavior and help to partially explain the nature of bounded rationality in the case of tourists’ winery visit decisions. Research limitations/implications Because the study focused only on winery visitors in the US Southeast, the research results may lack generalizability. Practical implications These findings can assist winery owners and destinations with wineries in their promotional efforts. Of major importance is the finding that increases in experiential knowledge from prior travel are monotonically associated with increases in the number of information sources marked to be valuable in selecting a winery. The influence of experience is particularly dramatic in that the mean number of information sources marked to be valuable moves from a low of 2.5 to a high of 10.0 out of 16 as travel experience increases. Originality/value The study contributed significant and useful findings that advance the application of enrichment theory to wine tourism. Enrichment theory does not currently differentiate between types of knowledge that enrich a consumer’s ability to more easily encode and use new information. The current study confirms that experiential knowledge is an important knowledge construct in models of bounded rationality.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fan Liu

We conduct a survey to examine herd behavior in the insurance market. Following prior studies on consumers’ use of information sources in their purchase decision-making processes we develop hypotheses that explore the relationship between selection of information sources and herd behavior among potential insurance buyers in the market. Our results strongly support contentions that insurance buyers are significantly influenced in their choices by recommendations from different information sources and they do use these as herd cues to infer insurance product quality when making their own purchase decisions. In particular, our findings suggest that potential insurance buyers are more likely to be influenced by collective intelligence than by insurance experts.


Author(s):  
Bernadine O’Donovan ◽  
Ruth M. Rodgers ◽  
Anthony R. Cox ◽  
Janet Krska

Abstract Aim: To determine the use and perceived value of different information sources that patients may use to support identification of medicine side effects; to explore associations between coping styles and use of information sources. Background: Side effects from medicines can have considerable negative impact on peoples’ daily lives. As a result of an ageing UK population and attendant multi-morbidity, an increasing number of medicines are being prescribed for patients, leading to increased risk of unintended side effects. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of patients who use medicine, recruited from community pharmacies. The survey sought views on attributes of various information sources, their predicted and actual use, incorporating a shortened Side Effects Coping Questionnaire (SECope) scale and the abbreviated Miller Behavioural Style Scale (MBSS). Findings: Of 935 questionnaires distributed, 230 (25.0%) were returned, 61.3% from females; 44.7% were retired and 84.6% used at least one medicine regularly. 69.6% had experienced a side effect, resulting in 57.5% of these stopping the medicine. Patient information leaflets (PILs) and GPs were both predicted and actually most widely used sources, despite GPs being judged as relatively less accessible and PILs less trustworthy, particularly by regular medicine users. Pharmacists, considered both easy to access and trustworthy, were used by few in practice, while the internet was considered easy to access, but less trustworthy and was also little used. SECope sub-scales for non-adherence and information seeking showed positive associations with stopping a medicine and seeking information from a health professional. More high monitors than low monitors stopped a medicine themselves, but there were no differences in use of information sources. Information seeking following a side effect is a common strategy, potentially predicted by the SECope, but not the MBSS. Limited GP accessibility could contribute to high internet use. Further research could determine how the trustworthiness of PILs can be improved.


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