Journal of Scientific & Industrial Research
Vol. 58, March - April 1999, pp 203-210
Information Processing Theory As A Guide to Choosing
Information Delivery Models on the WWW
Ravi Patnayakuni
Department of Information Systems, University of Melbourne, Australia
e-mail: I:patnayakuni @dis.(.lllimelb.edu.au
and
Nainika Patnayakuni
School of Management Information Systems, Deakin Univeristy Australia
e-mail: naina @deakil1.edu.au
Most organi zations develop web pages and applications on an ad-hoc basis without adequate planning. We argue that
informati on and application delivery on the Web can foll ow general principles of information managemen t and organization.
Towards that end we ap ply information richness theory to suggest approaches for information delivery on the Web. We present
different modes of push and pull information delivery based on existing frameworks. Then principles of information richness
theory are used to identify how each of these modes affects uncertainty and equivocality in different contexts which is illustrated
by so me examples.
1 Introduction
The Intern et resulted in a paradigm shift in informati on delivery within and across organizational boundari es. Traditionally information delivery to customers
has followed a model of one to many communications
that were c haracterized by providers of adverti sing,
marketing, and support information determining content
and customers as passive consumers of that information ' . Within organizations, delivery of numerou s reports and docume nts have resuled in information overload due to the delivery of information out of phase (may
be required for future use) and to everyone just in case
they need it 2 . The Intern et and the world-wide web were
touted as active mode of numerous communications in
which users pull informati on relevant to the ir needs instead of a central authority pushing out information to
the m, that it considered was re levant for them. However, what is an inte ractive media from users point of
view is much more pass ive medium of communicati on
from the pe rspec tive of informati on providers. The information providers put up th e web pages and app li cations and wait for th e users to acti ve ly pull content' .
The rise of the push mode of information de l ive ry on
the web is he ralded as another paradigm shift that e nables inform ati on providers to again ac ti ve ly push content to consumers of informati on. The push mode of
delivery is akin to the broadcast media in the sense of
one to many communications but enab les the users in
many instances to select the content that th ey want to be
de livered to them and the frequency with which they
want it to be delivered.
As product life cycles become shorte r and competition becomes keener management of information is the
critical skill that distingui shes effective from ineffective organizat ions. With the increase in outsourcing
and the ri se of end-u ser computing, information management is seen as the new rol e of IS managers . The
management and di stribution of information in organizat ions has unde rgone a dramati c change with the ri se
of Internet and Intranets. How then , can informati on
delive ry via the web e nabl e organizations to better manage information ? Whil e organizations nl sh to create web
pages, it would be in their interest to identify and apply
bas ic tene ts of existing theories in information manageme nt. This study is an attempt in that directi on by presenting an application of information processi ng theo ry
to informati on delive ry on the web 4 •
2 Information Delivery and the WWW
The Inte rn et is a g lobal network of interconnected
networks. The WWW is the interacti ve hype rmedia part
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J SCI IND RES VOL 58
of the Internet which allows users to access multi media
inform ation located on servers anywhere in the world
by following hyperlinks to that information. The WWW
has gro wn as a commercia} medium over time offering
both consumers and organizations numerous advantages
such as information availability, search mechanisms, and
online product tri als l . The rise of Intranets has enabled
organizations to decentralize the creation and distribution of information unencumbered by incompatible computing standards and technologies .
Much information de livery on th e web ho wever
merely uses it as another media of mass communication , merely putting up content without leveraging the
interactive nature of the medi a. Hoffman et all. have
categorized commercial web si tes into fiv e categories:
Online storefront, Internet presence (fl at ad, image, and
information), contents (fee based, sponsored , searchable
database), mall , ince nt ive sites, and searc h agents.
Online storefronts offer direct sales of their products and
services on the web. Internet presence sites, on the other
hand , contain flat files or ad s of information without
any hyperlinks or hypermedi a content. Such sites intend to imitate the properties of mass communication
med ia by providing si milar content and de livery on the
web. Other content sites either charge fees for their content (WS1-interactive), or are spo nsored sites where adverti sin g pays for the content. Malls are a co ll ect ion of
online storefronts. In centive si tes use transitory content
to attract consumers to some commerci a l sites behind it.
Search agents could be fee based or adverti ser sponsored.
This catego ri zati on of commercial web sites can be
drawn upon to deve lop a categori zat ion of informatio n
delivery on the web that separates the issue of site content and presentation with sponsors hip, advertising or
other sources that pay for the content. The purpose is to
develop a categorizati on th at can be equally applied to
Internet as well as Intranet si tes. We categori ze web
sites as transaction based, database access, content based,
search agents, information broker sites, paricipative sites
and on the fly sites. Content based sites can be distingui shed from tran sacti on based si tes in that they do not
support a transaction such as buying and selling . On
Intranets transaction based sites support on l ine transactions such as filling out leave app lications . Contentbased sites contain content on a specific top ic and
hyperlinks to other sites presented by the author. Company brochures and onl ine advertising informati on pre-
MARCH - APRIL 1999
sented by companies would also be categorized under
content sites. Search agent sites allow search of local
and non-local web content and can be c ustomized for
use by or for a specific group of users. Information broker2 sites contain links to multiple sources of information and provide context based expert advice and ratings of this information. A finan ce department site providing links to useful investment related web site and
ratings of these sites would be an example of an information broker site. On the fly sites are just those, sites
that can present customizabl e content based on user profiles, user access information or any current promotions
by the information provider. Database access sites allow users or consumers to access databases to obtai n
information. Customers can access production databases
to get informati on on the statu s of their orders. Managers can access skill s databases to find out the most appropriate employee for ajob opening. Participative sites
enable user partic ipation in creating on line discu ss ion
groups and FAQ's or enable team members to work together. Any number of hybrid site combinations can be
obtained from th ese categories, there can be content
based searchable sites, participative transaction oriented
si tes, etc.
Obtaining inform ation on the web requires considerable effort and time on the part of users. Software agents
are used to enable search of the databases across the
web or a part thereof. In th e pull model of information
delivery, the primary responsibility of informati on providers is to attract use rs to the site and to generate repeat visits. This mode of information delivery requ ires
a significant change in th e type of information th at is
communicated, and the way it is orga ni zed, presented,
and di stributed to users. The problem with pass ive infonTIation deli very is th at providers of content, especially
commercial sites have to wait for an inordin ate amount
of time for users to access their sites. Fu rth er, in most
cases they do not know who is access in g the site, so the
information content cannot be tailored to individual users spec ific needs. According to Di ck in so n" th e basic
business paradigms th at are used on the web do not work
well with the pull mode of informati on delivery. Adverti sing, paid inform ation and entertainment servi ces as
well catalogs require th e audience demographic characteristics to be known and precise meas urement of who,
when and how often consumes these serv ices. Even in
the case of content delivery within organizations, th e
ability to custo mize and make the information relevant
PATNAYAKUNI & PATNAYAKUNI
T
INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY
to users requires an id entification of demographic characteristics and measurement of usage. For example if
the human resource department has a job opening for
workers with specific skills and experience, such information need not be sent to everyone in the organization.
The efficacy of information delivered by, say, the information techno logy services group can be assessed by
the number and type of users accessing different types
of content and subsequently information can be tailored
to their need s.
The answerto many information providers' problems
is a new type of Internet technology that promises to
deliver news, information, real-time data as well as software updates (fixe s) directly to users. In its most common form , all one has to do is install a software on the
desktop. Then the software can take up the task of collecting content from multiple prespecified web sites
based on topic areas of your choice that are referred to
as channels. The most popular example of push information delive ry on the web is The PointCast Network
(www. Pointcast.com) which allows users to obtain information from many news delivery sites to a screen
saver on the desktop .
The push services provided differ on many dimensions. The information provided mayor may not be
hyperlinked to the web sites. The user mayor may not
be required to be online while the information is bei ng
downloaded. The push services can themse lves use push
as well as pull technology to del iver content. In the case
of push techno logy, the server initiates contact with the
client when the information is ready to be transmitted .
In the pull method the client can be configured to pull
information from the server on a prespecified schedule
or in the presence of an active connection . Some products do not directly deliver content but can notify you
when content changes, either through e-mail , HTML
pages or pagers . Some of these products are supported
through advertising or selling technology to content providers, while others charge for their serv ices.
The push mode of information delivery does differ
from th e pull mode in being able to offer the advantages
of interactivity and customization as well as the one to
many communication capabilities of mass med ia . However, there is a rea l danger of push degenerating into
delivery of junk mail to users or of information that they
may need 'j ust in case' in th e future 2 • This will provide
205
additional advantages to infonnation providers to customize content for users from their point of view but
reduce the user interactivity in the search for information that are the hallmark of information delivery on the
web. Even where push enables users to define the content they want, it enables infonnation providers to collect additional information about the users. While thi s
can enable target marketing and focused information
delivery, it may have implications for the reduction of
privacy both of consumers as well as organizational
employees. For information providers the push mode
of information delivery enables better focusing and targeting of infonnation . It enables information pro viders
to make information available to the users whenever and
wherever required without waiting for them to access
the web site. It can help them to collect relevant feedback from the users much more rapidly and enables rapid
customization of information based on user needs.
The pull approach for information retrieval reli es on
providing useful information and transactions to get repeat hits, such as technical support, free software, and
useful content. Advertising, if any, is done on sites of
various search engines or other content sites. When push
is the main form of advertising, advertisers may only
provide information and services that facilitate the execution of transactions, and the difference between advertisers and content providers can be reinstated. The
use of site content as the primary means of repeat visits
to the web site may hold less value if repeated reminders of products and services can be pushed to users.
IS managers' may find it hard to manage the web
traffic created by many users trying to access the web at
the same time . The push mode of information delivery
enables better management of web traffic by reducing
browsing and sea rch . It heightens the need for a separate role for management of information in the enterprise. There is a need for an enterprise information map2
and an appropriate organization of information that is
pushed to the users. In cases where the deci sio n of what
to push is made by information providers th e user could
end up receiving multiple notificati ons or deliveri es of
new information . The information needs to be organized and de livered to the users in an integrated format.
Where users themselves filter or specify the information to be pu shed, the presence of multiple informat ion
providers can confuse matters so that users need to access multipl e sources to get the informati on they want
206
Pull/Push
J SCI IND RES VOL 58
Notification
Filters
MARCH - APRIL 1999
Automated Push
Automated Pull
Channel Changers
Content based sites
Transaction! workflow
Search age nt
Database access
In formation brokers
Participative Content
On the fly
Fi gure 1-
Information delivery choices available to the organization
and rece ive it in multipl e documents in multiple medi a
types.
Berst) has provided five categories of push based
information delivery. They are: Notification , Filters, Automated Pull , Automated Push, and Channel changers.
In the notification approach, the user spec ifies which
web sites to monitor and the system provides a notification when the content of the web site changes. The user
still has to go to th e site to retrieve information. The
problem with this approach is that it cannot distinguish
between essential and non-essential changes and cannot
help with pages that are bu ilt online. Filters are based
on topic areas spec ified by the users that flag and retri eve information from many sources and de liver it either as an e-mail, web page or pager alert. Automated
pull approaches are based on the user se lecting which
web sites to monitor and these web sites are downloaded
into the users hard drive at regular spec ified intervals.
This can strain a corporate network with excess traffi c.
Automated push is server based and regularly delivers
information to a prespecified set of users . Channe l
changers, is the most popular category with players such
as Netscape, Microsoft, and PointCast. These services
repackage information from various sources in the form
of channe ls, providing users with the choice of which
channels to receive.
The choice between various push and pull information delivery models should not depend only on tec hnical capability and feasibility but should also take into
account the information process ing need s of the organization . In the subsequent section we use organization
information processing theorl as a guide to se lecting
-
between variou s modes of push-pull de livery of information via the WWW. The choices available to the organization are presented in Figure I .
3 Information Processing Theory and the Web
Organizational information process ing is different
from individual information process ing as it in vo lves
shared interpretation s and need s consenSllS and con flict
reso lution for organizational action °. Organizations p rocess information to reduce equi voca lity and uncertainty.
Uncertainty is defined as the absence of informati on 4 •
Uncertainty imp li es that even thoug h in fo rmation ns not
availabl e, the dec ision-makers kn ow what questi ons to
ask and where to locate the information , Equivocality
implies the existence of ambiguity such that there are
multipl e and conflicting interpretation s of a situati on 7 .
Deci sion-makers in equivocal context are uncertain about
what questi ons to ask and where to obtain the relevant
information . Whil e uncertain contexts can be reso lved
by information systems that process large amounts of
objective qu antitative data, equivocal s ituations require
group discu ss ions and interpersonal interaction s. Group
communication and decision support tec hnolog ies are
more likely to be useful in resolvin g eq ui voca l situ ations. Daft and Lengel 4 (p. 557) integ rate the equi vocality and uncertainty perspectives of deci sion mak ing.
The framework they present is given in Figure I along
with web approaches to support each con text.
They furth er suggest organization des igns that can
serve to ameliorate equivocality and unce rtainty. Structural mechanisms such as formal man agement inform ation systems, task forc es, liai son rol es, complexity and
variety of organizations task can influe nce the amount
,
PATNAYAKUNI & PATNAYAKUNI
INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY
Uncertainty
High
High
Many ambiguous
uncertain events, managers
defme questions, also seek
answers, gather objective
data and exchange opinions
Channel changers,
database access,
information broker and on
the fly, search agent,
Participative, filters,
automated pull and
automated push
207
Low
Occasional
ambiguous unclear
events, managers defme
questions, develop
common grammar,
gather opinions
Participative web
sites, search agent sites,
information broker
sites and filters,
channel changers
Equiyocality
Low
Many well defmed
problems, managers ask
many questions, seek
explicit answers, gather new
quantitative data
Clear, well defined
situation, managers need
few answers, gather
routine objective data
Content based sites,
database access sites, on
the fly sites, transaction
sites, automated pull and
automated push, channel
changers
Content based sites,
notification
Chart I-
Information processing theory and Web information delivery
of information processed. But reduci ng equivocality
requires mechani sms th at facilitate processing of rich
information. Informat ion richness is defined as the ability of informati on to change understanding within a time
interva l. Communication media vary in their capacity
to process rich information based on th eir capac ity for
immediate feedback , the number of cues and channels
utili zed, personalization and language variety. Structural mechanisms to process rich informati on need to
enable debate, clari ficat ion; and enactment .
The equivocality and uncertainty of the information
processing context can be ll sed to determine combination of push and pull wi ll be th e most appropri ate. Re-
duct ion of uncertainty requires th at info rmati on be presented in res ponse to structured infor mati on needs.
Content based sites, database access sites, on the fl y sites,
transaction sites and automated pull and automated pus h
approaches enab le uncertainty reducti on. Content sites
have information content that is presented based on identifi cation of user needs. Access to organi zati onal databases and type of access are based on an identifi cation
of who needs what inform ati on and security pol ic ies
regarding the information. Aut omated pull and automated push approaches envisage th at either users or se rvice providers are aware of what information will be
needed and when and can precisely identify the web sites
that satisfy their needs. ] mplementati on of transacti ons
and work flow app licati ons also requires that not onl y
J SCI IND RES VOL 58
208
MARCH - APRIL 1999
Interdependence between departments
Productiom, and Marketing
• Web based access to production and sales databases
• Channel changers that identify current and relevant production
and marketing news and present it to the other department
• Automated push and pull approaches to inform employees in other
departments of changes in marketing or production departments databases
• Online ransactions such as orders and shipping fortn'l
• On the fly sites that customize information based on department, location
and management level
Acti ve re lationship
with environment
Task variety
Forecasting Demand
• Channel changers to collect
information about customers !Tom
different sources
• Qualitative and quantitative databases
and data analysis tools for trend analysis
• Automated push .and automated pull
approaches to keep planners abreast of changes
in web sites on a regular basis
Organization facing
Industry deregulation
• Content based sites to inform key
constituents of organizations
. position
• Channel changers collect
in formation from various sources
on the status of deregulation
Uncertainty
Figure 2: Sources of Uncertainty and Web Support
Difference between departments
Production and Marketing
• P;u:ticipative sites such as lists, discussi on
groups and web support for leam functioning
·Filters set lip managers on issues relevant to their interest
• Information broker sites set up by integrators and liaison roles in
each department on issues of relevance to the other department
• Search agents customized 0 enable marketing cmployees to fi nd
production related information (for example using marketing terms and
keywords) and vie versa.
• Filters set up by departments on topics of interest
Task unanalyzabi lit y
Managerial Performance
Evaluation
• Information broker sites by
HR managers that identify critical
issues in performance evaluati on
• Filters set up by managers on subjects
of their interest
• Participative that keep a record of
private correspondence between the
reviewer and reviewee
Environment cause e ffect relati onshi ps un abyzab Je
Equivocality
Understanding competitor actions
• Search agent sites to support
search for news and current
information about competitors
• Participative sites that enable
discussion and clarification
between, employees and external
partners
• Filters set up by different members
in the value chain on topics of their
interest
Figure 3: Sources of Equivocality and Web Support
PATNAYAKUNI & PATNAYAKUNI
INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY
are the information needs clearly defined but al so applications des igned to sati sfy those needs.
The importance of user participation, di scussion, and
search is essential to resolve equi vocality by providing
mUltiple opinion s and points of view. Participative web
sites, search agent sites, information broker sites, and
filters are appropriate in the context of unclear informati on needs. These approaches incorporate multiple points
of view and do not require precise identi fication of users needs in advance. When information is relati vely
unchanging and clearly defin ed (low uncertainty and
equivocality), notification of web site changes is an appropriate means of push due to th e infrequent nature of
site changes . Channel changers, as they collect and
present informat ion from multiple web sites can be applied to reducin g both uncertainty and equivocality and
may be very useful in hi gh uncertainty, hi gh equivocality contexts.
Content based sites, notification
There are three sources of uncertainty and equivocality in organizations: technology, environment and interdepartmental relations x . Technology is the knowledge tools and techniques used to transform input to
output. Perrow~ has defined two dimensions of technology, analyzability and variety which are likely to influence organizational information process ing needs. Variety of tasks is the degree to which unpredictable and
novel events tend to occur while analyzability is the degree to which users followed an objective computational
procedure to solve problems . Task variety is a source of
uncertainty while unanal yzability is a source of equi vocality. In the context of interdepartmental relations, difference between departments characterized by function al
specialization, goals, jargon, etc. is the source of equivC'cal ity. Departmental interdependence increases uncertainty as the actions of one department can influence
those of another department, as frequent adjustments are
needed. Finally, organizational information process ing
is also influenced by its understanding of the environment. An unanalyzable environment that makes it difficult to identify cause-effect relationships in the environment is the source of equivocality making it difficult
for man.agers to ask preci se question s to obtain the
needed answers. Some organizations are active information seekers from the environment either due to envi-
209
ronmental hostility or their dependence on it. This is
the source of uncertainty in the context of relationship
with the environment. Figure 2 and 3 present the various sources of uncertainty and equivocality, an example
of a typical organizational context and web support for
that situation based on guidelines derived from information processing theory.
4 Conclusions
Most organizational contex ts will likely be characterized by a combination of uncertainty and equi vocality. The choice of web support to provide in such a situation would depend upon the extent to which uncertainty
or equivocality is dominant in a given situation . It woul d
also depend on whether organizations intend to attack
uncertainty or equivocality problems in that context. Just
like other information systems, organizations are more
likely to attack uncertainty problems with web sites in itially rather than equivocalilty problems. Even th ough
this requires a more precise identi fication of user needs,
such sites are easier to justify and show results in terms
of quantitative benefits from availability of inform ation.
Sites, which depend on reducing equivocality as a measure of their success, are likely to require team coopemtion and participation to succeed. Organizational support, culture, policies and procedure, the human and
social aspect of change is likely to playa much greater
role in the success of these sites. The dominant principles of information processing theory however make
organizations understand that using uncertainty reducing web approaches in a context characterized by high
equivocality is unlikely to result in success.
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