The Use of Structuration Theory in Empirical Information Systems Research: A Systematic Literature Review

Abstract

Structuration Theory (ST) is increasingly used in the field of Information Systems (IS) and has been widely cited by IS researchers. However, despite the widespread use of ST in IS research, there is a lack of systematic literature reviews on the application of ST in the IS research domain. The purpose of this study is, therefore, to review how ST has been applied in IS research focusing more on the core ST concepts applied in the studies. A systematic review of 33 empirical IS papers published in the last seven years (2015–2021) informs that ST has been used as a theoretical lens by applying general and selective structural concepts. It is also found that a good number of studies have applied ST in combination with other theories to complement as well as to extend the theoretical perspectives. Most studies empirically applied the IS specific version of ST, the Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST), to analyse the IS phenomena. This review also presents the six most used core ST concepts in the reviewed papers. Overall, the paper contributes to offering a better understanding about the application of ST in the IS as a social practice and provides the state-of-the-art insights on the structural concepts used in the empirical IS research.