June
1st, 2009 – Wollongong, NSW Australia
/ Montreal, QC, Canada
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Executive Summary
What makes companies such
as Wal-Mart in the U.S., Metro Group in
Germany and Tesco in the United Kingdom,
so willing to adopt RFID technology? More
precisely, what are those factors that matter
most and least to firms when considering
an investment in RFID? And how does the
importance of such factors vary between
adopters and non-adopters?
The answers to these questions
are important because they indicate where
future development effort should be directed
to increase the rate of RFID adoption. To
begin, we conducted a large survey of 133
RFID Journal readers. The industries represented
in the sample include: wholesale trade,
retail trade, transportation and communications,
business services, communication services,
manufacturing, finance and insurance, mining,
government administration and defense. Firm
size was well distributed, with 39% of the
sample from small sized firms (less than
20 employees), 21% from medium sized firms
(20 to 200 employees) and 40% from large
firms (more than 200 employees).
The methodology used to
conduct this study allowed us to calculate
the relative importance of 21 attributes
that influence the decision to invest in
RFID. The results indicate that those factors
that matter “most” during the RFID investment
decision are: (1) the benefits that RFID
offers in terms of improved data quality,
reliability and timeliness, (2) the amount
of top management commitment by senior managers
to provide resources that will support investment
in RFID, and (3) improved alignment of information
between suppliers and customers.
One of the most interesting
aspects of the study is that it shows quite
clearly which attributes respondents are
willing to abandon first. In other words,
the factors that matter “least” to the RFID
investment decision are: (1) privacy threats,
(2) security threats and (3) standards ambiguity.
Finally, the results reveal important differences
between RFID adopters and non adopters.
In the case of adopters, the perceived opportunity
to derive strategic benefits from RFID through
improved decision making is critical. Not
surprisingly, the non adopting firms are
primarily concerned with the high acquisition
and other costs associated with RFID technology.
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