Quantifying the added value of using a Smart Technology RFID : a macroeconomic analysis

This paper contributes to smart industry adoption research by separately examining the effect of using sensor technologies to monitor products of a supply chain. Specifically, it is investigated what implications radio-frequency identification (RFID) use has on operational performance. A literature review shows that for every industry there are key supply chain characteristics which can be improved in terms of operational performance by adopting RFID technology. This knowledge is new and refutes the prevailing notion that RFID technology must be customised to industry branches. This shall not imply that RFID is an one-fit-all solution, but it points out that knowledge spillovers are occurring between industries leading to consensuses in applications while increasing its popularity. Even though the literature review has proven that ubiquitous uses and benefits of smart tags exist for different industries, the results of the multiple regression show insignificant results for the relationship between percentage of firms using RFID and GDP. The assumption that there is a positive significant relationship between the two variables is not confirmed. Either there really is no relationship between the two variables, or managers are still too uncertain on how to maximise the RFID system potentials leading to application errors and profit losses.