Abstract

Situational applications are a new breed of software assumed to fit to the types of tasks and contextual requirements encountered in dynamic work environments described as weakly structured, highly diverse and fast-changing. The aim of this paper is to discuss the characteristics of situational applications and how organizations can benefit from them with the help of Structuration Theory. Concepts from Structuration Theory allow us to differentiate situational applications from traditionally developed business applications according to the specifics of design and development, the resulting product as well as its deployment and usage. Theoretical implications of this discussion are a much more concise description of situational applications and a host of potential research avenues to further explore research questions on situational applications while managerial implications not only call for creating an organizational and technological infrastructure in support of situational applications, but also for guidance of these grassroots approaches to software development and use.

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