Exploring radio frequency identification technology's application in international distribution centers and adoption rate forecasting

Radio Frequency Identification Technology's (RFID) application in the global supply chain has seen increased attention, and international distribution centers (IDC) are now playing a more crucial role in the global supply chain operation. This paper adopts structure equation modeling (SEM) to investigate the impact of three factors mainly based on the technology acceptance model (TAM): perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and the social norm on the use intention of an IDC. Empirical results indicate that a revised TAM could explain the RFID acceptance behavior. Perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and the social norm are demonstrated to have an effect on RFID acceptance intention. The choice of RFID adoption is also impacted by the supply chain's stakeholders. Factors that affect the adoption intention of an IDC thus include customers and partners' request, government policy, and competitors that have already adopted RFID. Furthermore, the study adopts the binary Logit model based on the stated preference method's data to predict the possible adoption rate of the RFID system in the adoption intention of an IDC. This empirical study shows that significant statistical determinants influencing RFID acceptance are: system purchasing fixed cost, variable cost, and perceived usefulness. Our model also predicts that the penetration of RFID application in Taiwan's international distribution centers could hit the 25% adoption rate. The study provides several managerial implications and suggests future research directions. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.