This article contains results of the research that it is part of a set of academic studies with the objective of investigating the information management in the environment of small businesses. The management information process involves the stages of determining the necessity, obtaining, executing, distributing and presenting the information, as well as its utilization. A bibliographical revision was carried out, which included the subjects information management and specific characteristics of small businesses. The fieldwork was divided into two phases. The first consisted of a wide exploratory-descriptive survey classified as a survey study in all the enterprises of the minidistricts from São José do Rio Preto city in São Paulo state. The second, like an associated exploratory descriptive research, having been carried out a comparative study of cases in four enterprises. It was verified the predominance of a reactive behavior before the environment forces; variation of attitudes and reactions on the decisive process according to the differentiations in the structure of the enterprise, size, hierarchical levels, formalization of the process and their information flow.
Management of the information; Specific characteristics of small businesses
