Contribuições teórico-conceituais ao estudo do Monitoramento Ambiental (Environmental Scanning) sob as perspectivas da Ciência da Informação e Ciência da Administração

Abstract

Theoretical and exploratory research, of a qualiquantitative nature, with the objective of identifying and analyzing theoretical-conceptual contributions to the study of Environmental Scanning, promoting its epistemological outline, from the perspectives of Information Science and Management Science. Considering the scarcity of theoretical studies on the subject, mainly in the national scenario, the debate was developed having as its main argument the diversity of terms and concepts as problematic issues, evidenced in national and international literature. It was determined as theoretical foundations, on the one hand, the Theory of Organizations, epistemological basis of Managemente Science, and on the other, user studies, from the perspective of Information Behavior, a subarea of knowledge in Information Science. In this sense, since this is an interdisciplinary research, theoretical frameworks of an integrative character were developed in order to consolidate the epistemological approaches of the two sciences. As a form of quantitative foundation, in order to refine the epistemological outline of Environmental Scanning, an informetric study was developed using the Web of Science database as a research source, in an interdisciplinary perspective, using bibliometric techniques through application software, in order to highlight theoretical constructs (cowords), as well as references and authors (cocitation). Reflections and criticism are directed, including the use of term “monitoring” regarding this theme. Future studies are recommended for developing the research agenda involving Environmental Scanning, especially in graduate programs in Information Science and Management Science in Brazil, considering the evidence of a strong interdisciplinary relationship between these fields of knowledge.