| Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology is like wireless barcodes, in that it allows scanning of serial numbers without line of sight. This ability brings great benefits in supply chain organizations, where RFID tagged goods and pallets are must be scanned frequently---whether in manufacturing processes, transit or inventory. Opposing these drivers of adoption, are challenges to implementation which impede its adoption, error control, installation issues, standardization of the format of the technology and management related issues.;As a result of reviewing literature on technology adoption antecedents in organizations, a success ratio (the number of times many times an antecedent significantly predicted adoption, to the number of times it had been studied), identified four likely antecedents to RFID. These antecedents are: top management support, external pressure, cost-benefit analysis, and organizational size. The purpose of this research is to validate these antecedents in context of RFID in supply chain organizations. A survey instrument based on accepted methods for measuring these four antecedents was sent to management personnel in supply chain organizations. Logistic regression was used to analyze the data collected from the survey. Advanced model entry methods, like stepwise, were used to provide insight into the significance of antecedents in the presence and absence of others. Of the four antecedents, it was found that only top management support and external pressure were significant in predicting this RFID adoption. Cost-benefit, which is significant in predicting adoption of other technologies, had a very little impact and was only was significant when used by itself. Organizational size was not a significant predictor of adoption. Several reasons for this result are posited. Contributions of external pressure and cost-benefit towards top management support is further explored and found significant, and therefore recommended for further study. |
