Developing Information Behavior Theories Based on Qualitative Research Methods
Developing new theories is one of purposes of academic research in social science.It is important to develop information behavior theories rooting in China's social context and situations,that is,to construct China's independent knowledge system of information behavior.To that end,this paper is aimed at addressing valid approaches to help explore issues of information behavior and develop new theories.The study adopts a content analysis to reveal how 72 classical information behavior theories were developed,in particular,what kinds of research methods or approaches were used to develop these theories.The results indicate that during the course to develop these theories,qualitative methods or approaches play a dominate role.77.8％ of the theories are developed based on different types of qualitative research methods.Part of studies (34.7％) develop new theories by multimethod or mixed methods;triangulation has been adopted to improve the validity and reliability of the studies.The results indicate that qualitative research approaches are valid for theory development.Then,based on the findings,the paper discusses the differences of information behavior research between Chinese and Western researches.The differences include adopting different research methods,appropriateness in using qualitative research,and using mixed methods or multimethod.The paper analyzes the reasons leading to the differences,such as the difficulty in conducting qualitative research,academic research tradition in China,misunderstanding of qualitative research methods,and lack of qualitative research training.To improve theory development of information behavior in China,the paper further addresses how to construct China's independent knowledge system,especially theories,of information behavior.First,it is important to improve the skills in the application of qualitative research methods to target information behavior issues or phenomena.Second,it is necessary to promote the development of information behavior theories by applying qualitative research methods.Third,the paper proposes that it is necessary to combine Chinese context and situations to construct China's independent knowledge system.The paper emphasizes the importance of adopting qualitative research methods or approaches,including in-depth interview,field studies,observation,and so on to target related issues.These methods or approaches are critical to help understand China's society.However,the study has limitations.It only chooses 72 classical theories of information behavior for analysis.Some new theories are not included.Therefore,the sample is limited.Also,the theories discussed in the paper are developed in Western context and situations even before AI technologies are widely used.It is necessary to adopt the theories critically.1 tab.30 refs.
Information behaviorTheory developmentQualitative research methodsIndependent knowledge system
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