In the bowling alley: acceptance of an intelligent packaging concept in European markets

Academia has discussed intelligent packaging as a concept to drive business performance using item level data throughout companies' supply chains. Despite the vivid discussion of the conceptual benefits, the market acceptance perspective has often been despised; this research paper aims to close that gap. The theoretical background comes from technology diffusion models, against which a survey across six European countries was conducted. According to the results, category-specific best practices dominate new technology acceptance, and the digital transformation of packaging is linked to supply chain and marketing rather than IT to be handled. Surprisingly, the geographical location of respondents came up as a side influencer and customer experience had less of an importance. At the end of the paper, a feasibility model is presented offering five parameters (volume, value, experiences, complexity and innovation spirit) to predict the success of intelligent packaging as it undergoes category-specific validation in the markets.