Consumer Acceptance of RFID Technology: An Exploratory Study

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is used in numerous applications and offers a plethora of interesting potential new applications. However, this potential raises issues that require addressing to achieve its widespread acceptance by consumers. This paper investigates the factors that affect consumer acceptance of RFID technology. The purpose of this effort is to develop and test a theoretical model that contextualizes the technology acceptance model (TAM) within the context of RFID technology. The research model proposes that convenience, culture, privacy, regulation, and security are the principal factors influencing the consumerspsila acceptance of RFID. However, the results show that convenience, culture, and security are significant predictors. This study is the first in the RFID literature to use the TAM for explaining consumer acceptance of RFID technology. The findings suggest that: (1) higher perceived convenience of RFID technology leads to greater acceptance of this technology; (2) societal beliefs, value systems, norms, and/or behaviors influence the extent of consumer acceptance of RFID technology; and (3) higher perceived importance of and less willingness to sacrifice personal information security lead to lower intention to use RFID technology. Contextualization of TAM to RFID technology makes this study relevant to practitioners because the results can provide insight to organizations using or exploring the use of RFID technology.