Implementation And Usage Of Radio Frequency Identification

Implementation and Usage of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Frederick J. Riggins MISRC RFID Project Leader Carlson School of Management University of Minnesota Minneapolis, MN 55455 [email protected] Whether to solve specific business problems or comply with trading partner mandates, many companies are now engaged in pilot projects using radio frequency identification (RFID). RFID dramatically increases the potential for organizations to collect data about any tagable entity, which has implications for supply chain logistics, customer relationship management, health care systems, human resource management, and privacy/intellectual property policies. However, in many cases the adoption issues and the business case are not well understood for this emerging technology. This mini-track includes three papers on the Implementation and Usage of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology in today’s organization and emphasizes the building of an on-going research tradition in this area. Developing a successful business case for RFID requires consideration of the fixed (infrastructure) costs and variable (tag) costs associated with implementing and using the system, the capabilities of the technology in terms of data capture and management, and the requirements of the business problem itself. While much of the discussion recently has been on EPC passive tags, there are many sensorbased RFID applications that require larger data storage on an active or semi-passive tag. For example, in cold-chain applications temperature and humidity readings may need to be stored on the tag itself for some period of time. In the first paper of this mini-track entitled “Data-onNetwork vs. Data-on-Tag: Managing Data in Complex RFID Environments”, Diekmann, Melski, and Schumann examine the advantages and disadvantages of EPC-based applications (data-on-network) as compared with storing data on a transponder (data-on-tag). They stress that these two approaches are not necessarily competing with one another, but rather can complement each other based on the needs of the specific business problem. They illustrate the two approaches with manufacturing case examples from The Ford Motor Company and The Boeing Company.

Bill C. Hardgrave Edwin & Karlee Bradberry Chair in IS Executive Director, ITRC Walton College of Business University of Arkansas Fayetteville, AR 72701 [email protected] Another key aspect of developing the business case for RFID is related to the extent to which the organization assimilates RFID into its operations and processes. Drawing upon their extensive work at the University of Arkansas, Hardgrave, Armstrong, and Riemenschneider propose an “RFID Assimilation Hierarchy”. The three-level hierarchy consists of Technology Deployment, Data Understanding, and Business Value Creation, which provides a useful way of thinking about the level of RFID assimilation into the organization. Using this hierarchy, the authors are able to propose a research agenda for RFID assimilation focused on four different areas of inquiry. Further, this hierarchy is an important step in developing appropriate metrics related to RFID usage. In the final paper of the mini-track entitled “Strategic and Institutional Perspectives in the Adoption and Early Integration of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)”, Sharma, Citurs, and Konsynki propose an integrative model of RFID adoption based on prior theory development in interorganizational systems, strategic choice theory, and institutional theory. While RFID has many unique characteristics, there is much that can be applied from a rich stream of research on the adoption of EDI and other types of interorganizational systems. Strategic choice factors such as organizational readiness, perceived costs and benefits of the technology, and certain external drivers all influence the firm’s choice of adopting RFID. Further, certain institutional factors such as coercive pressure from trading partners, normative pressure from other similar firms, and mimetic pressure due to trends in technology adoption also have been shown to influence adoption of technologies similar to RFID. This paper proposes a preliminary, yet integrative, RFID adoption model that yields several testable hypotheses. As such, this work promises to make a useful contribution to this important continuing stream of research on IOS adoption and therefore has been nominated for the conference best paper award.

Proceedings of the 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'07) 0-7695-2755-8/07 $20.00 © 2007