Antecedents to RFID Adoption: Perspectives of Retail Supply Chain Stakeholders

Abstract

This paper examines factors antecedent to the adoption of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) from the perspectives of three key retail supply chain stakeholders: retailers, retailer suppliers, and technology providers and develops a conceptual framework to explore the impact of RFID on retail supply chain performance. Drawing on extant interorganisational information system theory, this research identifies factors likely to impact on the adoption of RFID. Four categories of factors such as technological, economic, organisational and external are identified. The relationship between RFID factors, RFID adoption and retail supply chain performance was developed as a conceptual framework employing Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). The proposed framework was validated by the results of two Australian pilot studies and responses from stakeholders of two mini surveys. The study identifies several gaps and proposes that each stakeholder group must be aware of, and agree to the salient factors that effects an RFID adoption decision.