An Empirical Investigation of Task-Technology Fit: Context of RFID in Disaster Management

The notion of technological adoption such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) has been examined in various domains such as supply chain management, inventory management and health care. However, there are several unanswered questions surrounding how this technology is adopted in disaster management. This study attempts to explore the potential of RFID in disaster management. The notion of Task-Technology Fit (TTF) is deemed suitable for this purpose and thus used as the theoretical framework that is further validated by employing multiple case studies. The empirical findings indicate that there are six key factors influencing the decision to adopt RFID in disaster management. Some relate to aspects of RFID when it is put into practice, namely cost, compatibility, standardisation, implementation and locatability; while the other key factor relates to privacy and security aspect of information. It is hoped that the findings of this research will inform disaster management organizations to better plan the adoption of RFID for their operations.