Strategic, institutional and radicalness factors in the evaluation, adoption and early integration of RFID: An empirical investigation of current and future adopters

This study is among the first few empirical field studies that develops an integrative Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) adoption and implementation model (research model), and tests model hypotheses at the construct and rationale levels using field interviews and field survey data. The study tests a multi-stage implementation model to identify factors that are critical in the evaluation, adoption and integration stages of RFID. The research model incorporates both the strategic choice perspective where adoption is voluntary with a view to improve organizational efficiency and performance, and the institutional perspective where adoption is a result of conforming to pressures from an organization's institutional environment. The study compares the relative influence of each rationale on the adoption and post adoption integration decisions by a firm.;This study also introduces the concept of technology radicalness in interorganizational innovation adoption and tests for the effects of radicalness factors/dimensions in the RED adoption and implementation model. The study addresses the ambiguity surrounding the term technology "radicalness" and identifies attributes that make an emerging technology radical from the adopter's perspective. Perceived technology radicalness is conceptualized and tested through four dimensions (amount/extent of new knowledge, nature of concept change, extent of component change, extent of linkage change). Data from field interviews supports this new conceptualization. A scale operationalizing the proposed dimensions of perceived radicalness construct is developed and then tested by confirmatory factor analysis in structural equation modeling (SEM) using both experimental and field survey data.;Field survey data from both current and potential evaluators, adopters and integrators of the technology is utilized for testing the research model. The model is analyzed using multiple regression and binomial logistic regression techniques. The study finds important differences between the current and future adoption and implementation scenarios and across the three-implementation stages. The results from this study support the proposed multidimensional conceptualization of the radicalness construct and suggest an improvement over current measures of radicalness.