Adoption and Diffusion of Rfid Technology in the Automotive Industry

The adoption of novel information technologies like Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) can improve the transparency and efficiency within supply chains. After many years of hyping the RFID technology it becomes increasingly evident that the actual adoption and diffusion of RFID lags behind the expectations of its optimistic promoters. In this paper we identify factors with a top-down approach which are fostering the adoption and diffusion of RFID in a particular industry such as automotive. With a look at the theory of innovation diffusion, reviews of IS and IT diffusion studies with more than hundred factors, case reports, documented interviews with industry experts and workshops in the automotive industry we extract the factors compatibility, complexity, costs, performance and top management support as most important for the adoption and diffusion of RFID in the automotive industry, today.