RFID-Enabled Management System Adoption and Use in Construction: Passing Through the Labyrinth with an Improved Technology Acceptance Model

Abstract

The development of radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies has drawn notable attentions in recent studies in the construction industry. However, the initiatives of RFID technologies and RFID-enabled management systems are yet to be fully accepted and adopted in practice. The management systems seem caught in a labyrinth whereby technology developers complain that practitioners are notorious to embrace new technologies, while practitioners view the systems ‘disruptive’, if not useless altogether. By collecting qualitative research data from construction practitioners who are actively engaged in a RFID-enabled management platform implementation, this study explores the factors influencing these practitioners for accepting the system. An extended technology acceptance model (TAM) is proposed as a guiding framework to provide a better understanding of these practitioners’ adoption and use behaviors. Findings mesh with extended TAM indicating that ‘perceived usefulness’ and ‘perceived ease of use’ are of major influence to their attitude toward technology adoption. Moreover, the research demonstrates that the construction practitioners’ attitude are changing and heavily affected by the project managers who take the roles of system execution, or by peers who have harvested the benefits of such system. The findings of this study are not designed to be generalized but to offer a new perspective and insights to future TAM studies.