Role Of Information Acquisition Research Articles

Market Orientation in Australian SME’s: A Size Based Comparison

Market orientation theory highlights the role of information acquisition, dissemination and utilisation in meeting customer needs. Prior studies have examined the relationship between market orientation and performance as well as other consequences and requirements. Market orientation activities of a sample of Australian firms are examined to observe whether there are size-related differences. The consistency of market orientation between firms in different size groups and the relationship to performance differences is examined. The survey instrument is based on a conceptualisation of market orientation that includes intelligence gathering, dissemination and responsiveness. Businesses located in the Newcastle and Lower Hunter Region of Australia were surveyed, resulting in responses from 249 firms that were allocated to two size groups based on a size-based definition of small business. A positive relationship between market orientation, firm performance and esprit de corps in both the small and larger firms was found. There was no significant difference in the levels of the three individual components of market orientation between the two groups. Small and larger firms gathered intelligence, disseminated it and responded similarly. Sensitivity tests confirmed the results. Hypotheses proposing positive consequences for market oriented businesses were supported, regardless of firm size. Further analysis of the survey data will examine whether other firm demographics, such as line of business, influence market orientation and performance.

Rational Conjectures Equilibria in the Private Provision of Public Goods

This article examines the role of information acquisition and the interaction between learning and individual choices in a model of voluntary public good provision. It shows that if agents form conjectural variations via a simple econometric learning process, final equilibira are dependent upon initial conditions. There is a significant set of possible equilibria that arise as limit points of this process and they may be given a simple geometric interpretation.

The role of information acquisition and financial markets in international macroeconomic adjustment

International macroeconomic adjustment to money supply, aggregate expenditure, and relative demand disturbances is analyzed within a framework which emphasizes the role of information. Agents are unable to directly observe disturbances and may become fully informed about disturbances only by purchasing information. We analyze how relative price and exchange rate adjustment depends on the variances of the underlying disturbances while taking into account the incentive to acquire information. We also discuss the conditions which are necessary to preclude a free-rider problem whereby uninformed agents are able to extract from observation of financial market conditions the exact information of the information buyers.