Reciprocity in information exchange: how social exchange enriches collaborative research partnerships

Introduction. This paper explores the information behaviour of researchers engaging with industry, community and government stakeholders. It examines the interplay between information sharing, seeking, encountering and use, and the role of reciprocity in social exchange. Research design. This qualitative study involved semi-structured interviews with 27 academics in Australia using a constructivist grounded theory methodology, and Molm’s reciprocity theory of social exchange as a framework for analysis Theoretical framework. Savolainen’s characterisation of information exchange as the intersection of seeking and sharing (2019) and Molm’s (2010) reciprocity theory of social exchange. Findings. The findings indicate that researchers’ information behaviour in relationships with stakeholders involved information reciprocity in the interaction of information seeking, sharing, encountering and use. Researchers engaged in interactive and interwoven processes of seeking, sharing, encountering and using information that involved mutual benefits for each party. Conclusions. The paper presents a Model of Information Reciprocity for Social Exchange that identifies the information behaviours and modes of reciprocity that underpin researcher-stakeholder relationships. Information sharing, seeking, encountering and use are the mechanisms enabling reciprocity and occur interactively and iteratively.