The Role of Information Literacy in Environmental Scanning as a Strategic Information System - A Study of Singapore SMEs
Abstract
The development of information technology and telecommunication has created both opportunities and challenges for business organizations. On the one hand, it provides various channels and applications for accessing, processing and distributing information; on the other hand, it imposes higher requirements of information literacy (IL) skills of employees for dealing with information. Despite the number of studies undertaken to investigate the role of IL in the workplace, few of them have integrated IL skills with a specific business management activity, and even fewer of them have tried to evaluate the impact of IL on real business applications. This study aims to investigate the role of IL skills in environmental scanning (ES), a strategic information system used by organizations to cope with environmental changes. It will use both quantitative and qualitative methods: the quantitative approach through questionnaire survey will focus on finding statistically significant effects; the qualitative method through face-to-face interview is expected to discover more explorative information. The scope of the research is limited to SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), as they form a significant chunk of the economy in many countries, and they are more sensitive towards environmental uncertainties due to their limited financial resources. This study is expected to fill the knowledge gaps and build up a new model of environmental scanning as a systematic information system with consideration of the effect of IL skills and information technology applications.
Keywords Information literacy - environmental scanning - SME - Singapore
