AN EXTENDED ADAPTIVE STRUCTURATION THEORY FOR THE DETERMINANTS AND CONSEQUENCES OF VIRTUAL TEAM SUCCESS

Abstract

Virtual teams represent an organizational form which can revolutionize the workplace and provide organizations with unprecedented levels of flexibility and responsiveness. Extant reviews on virtual team research lack in two important aspects: First they do not explain the inconsistencies in virtual team research, and second they fail to explain how virtual teams achieve success. This paper, based on an extensive literature review of available research on virtual teams, identifies key drivers of virtual team effectiveness. Integrating the identified drivers, it develops a conceptual, analytical framework with 9 propositions, to explain virtual teams’ path to success. The new framework is termed as EAST (extended adaptive structuration theory). It goes beyond the generalized frameworks, such as AST (Adaptive Structuration Theory) and InputOutput frameworks to identify virtual team specific constructs such as Mission, Emergent SocioEmotional States, and Individual Dimension. EAST identifies potential areas of future research for scholars, and provides advice to IS professionals regarding how to deploy virtual teams.