An Innovation Diffusion Research Of RFID In Intellegent Transportation

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), as the most critical technology of the Internet of Things, comes into public life. It can be applied to retail, logistics, intelligent transportation and so on. Though many pioneers of government and business, at home and abroad, have begun to apply it into industrial operation and public life, the adoption rate is low. How to promote the diffusion of RFID technology, is need to be answered before other technologies of Internet of Things be putted into practice.Most previous studies on RFID have dealt with technical issues, only few have been undertaken in the RFID adoption diffusion area. Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) as a mature application of intelligent transportation, is a pioneer of RFID technology. This study applies the diffusion of innovation theory to RFID technology, takes the electronic toll collection system of the highway in Zhejiang province as research object, identifies the factors affecting the adoption, and predicts the diffusion status. The research and conclusions as follows:First, this study takes interviews and questionnaire survey as research methods, to analyze the users'intention of adoption on ETC. Start with the formation of conceptual model from the literature of diffusion of innovation theory, design the questionnaire according to research object, interview with the users to modify the questionnaire. After the statistical analysis of the data, the factors that influence the adoption intention are:perceived characteristics of innovation (relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, observability), communication channels (mass media, interpersonal communication) and government policies. During the interview, the research also collects the users'suggestions and expectations of ETC.Second, the mediating effect of relative advantage is analyzed. The relative advantage mediates between communication channels and adoption intention. In the process of RFID adoption, communication channels evoke potential adopters' perceived relative advantage, and then come up with adoption intention. As RFID technology has just entered into the market, the mass media is much more important than interpersonal communication.Third, based on the data collected by ETC operation and questionnaire, a Bass model is simulated by system dynamics. The result shows the cumulative number of adopters over time follows an S shaped curve, predicts the ETC diffusion status in the future, and determines the application in its early stage. Suggestions based on conclusions are also given.