¹Department of Management & Information Systems, College of Business, Mississippi State University, U.S.A

Correspondence: Robert F. Otondo, Department of Management & Information Systems, Mail Stop 9581, College of Business, Mississippi State University, U.S.A. Tel: (662) 325-1962; Fax: (662) 325-8651; E-mail: rotondo@cobilan.msstate.edu

Received 20 October 2008; Revised 12 March 2009; Re-revised 6 June 2009; Re-revised 24 September 2009; Accepted 5 October 2009; Published online 3 November 2009.

Abstract

This study explores the ways in which managers evaluate Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and participate in its adoption. Using in-depth qualitative focus group and published trade journal interviews, our study contributes to research on managing RFID projects in organizations by identifying salient problems and relating them to sensemaking and influencing activities across problem types and manager experience with RFID. We also identify potential dangers in applying past knowledge, cognitive patterns, and experience about information and communication technologies (ICT) to problems that arise in RFID projects. Our study provides analytic generalizability for future RFID and ICT research.