Adaptive Structuration Theory and Media Richness Theory in GDSS Research: A Critical Review

This paper presents a synthesis of the group support systems literature (GSS) with a focus on adaptive structuration theory (AST) and media richness theory (MRT). We analyze 23 papers that use either of these theories in constructing or empirically testing hypotheses and fit these works to a framework for conceptualizing group decision support systems as proposed by Peters [1]. We find that MRT is not robust with respect to empirical analyses, while AST is. We show that the extant literature is narrowly focused with respect to task and that the AST literature is lacking in investigations of the effects of social context cues.