Information systems in research and development: the technological gatekeeper reconsidered
Lewis A. Myers · R and D Management · 1983
This paper reports on a field study designed to examine the relationship of personal, professional, organizational, and sociometric factors with the selection potential of a research professional as a source of information by his laboratory colleagues. The selection potential of individual research professionals was measured on three categories of scientific and technological information (the criterion variables). These categories are: project‐task information, state‐of‐the‐art information, and research‐laboratory‐technique information. Concurrent measurements were obtained for thirty predictor variables that include: demographic descriptors, interpersonal communication descriptors, organizational factors, sociometric preference factors, and architectural factors. Models for each of the criterion variables were developed in an attempt to identify and analyze characteristics of the technological gatekeeper and his environment. The results of this study support the premise that there are specialist gatekeepers for each different category of scientific and technological information communicated in the R&D laboratory as contrasted with earlier studies that defined technological gatekeepers as global information gatekeepers for all categories of information. The paper concludes with some general comments on the implications for management.