ENHANCEMENT OF RFID MARKETABLE USAGE IN MALAYSIA

1.0 ABSTRACT

Purpose; This study is meant to look into marketable usage of Radio- Frequency
Identification (RFID) in Malaysia. RFID has been in Malaysia market for more than
three years after TouchN’Go introduced the technology as their latest product. Over
the time, TouchN’Go has been doing pilot batches to test the product for toll payment
in identified highways. Meanwhile, TCSens has been implemented the same
technology for its Vehicle Entry Permits (VEP) project in Malaysia’s southern border
in Bangunan Sultan Ismail (BSI) and Kompleks Sultan Abu Bakar (KSAB).
Malaysia’s government has announced the usage of RFID in PLUS Highway that has
created mixed feedback from the floor. This study will explore more on the possibility
to enhance the marketable use of RFID through quantitative data collection method
and interviews with selective sample and pre-post intervention survey for qualitative
methods. Since the implementation of RFID is very limited in other fields in Malaysia,
this study will look into possibility to find any functions that could embedded RFID
technology in Malaysia. Insightful information and recommendation would be the
expected result for this study in the hope to make RFID technology worth every cents
spent by Malaysian and effective marketing strategy could be designed to get RFID to
its suitable place in market.

Design/methodology/approach; The author focuses on qualitative and quantitative

methods for this research, which includes interviews and surveys questions to gather
data. Other than that, previous researches will be reviewed to understand the gaps
existed for this study.
Findings; RFID is a new technology that should give a big impact to Malaysian to
ease their daily life. This research will find potential uses of RFID in normal life
routine and educates users on the importance of new technology other than finding the
best marketing plan that would promote RFID effectively.

Practical Implications; To identify the RFID functional potential to be adapted in

user’s daily routine, optimized user’s adaptability and strategize effective marketing
plan for RFID products that suits Malaysian.

1
Originality/Value; This study would holds a significant values to Malaysian life as
RFID is said to be an unworthy investment and under-utilize for the worth of it.

Keywords; Radio- Frequency Identification; RFID; Marketing Strategy; Technology

Innovation;
Paper type; Conceptual paper/research paper.

2.0 INTRODUCTION

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is relatively new technology implemented in

Malaysia, while it is widely used elsewhere in various fields. For countries in United
State, RFID already implemented in their retails and supply chain sector.

RFID implementation has been introduced in Malaysia by TouchN’Go when they

launch their pilot test programme to public in September 2018 for electronic toll
collection, with about 200,000 pilot testers across the Klang Valley, Johor, and Penang
during the initial deployment. The goals are primarily focused on minimising road
congestion and ensuring a smooth ride in tolls. RFID has been discovered to be faster
and more accurate in capturing or reading the vehicle's two barcodes. Another
advantage is the low-labor nature. Because the tags automatically generate and report
information when scanned by an AIDC system, labour expenditures are completely
eliminated. RFID has other goals and benefits, such as less line of sight limitations,
improved visibility, more information, is less prone to damage, and avoids inventory
inconsistency.

However, there is still lack of awareness on information regarding RFID usage and
importance to Malaysia community nowadays. After Malaysia government announced
the implementation of RFID will be executed from 15th January, 2022, there are mixed
feedback from the community on the effectiveness and the cost efficiency of RFID.
Not only that, most of Malaysian are disappointed with the consequences of the roll
out and the restriction of RFID usage. Thus, this research are initiated to look into the
possibility of enhancing RFID usage into other than toll payment, to identify the level

2
of awareness and adaptability among users and determine the marketing strategy that
could be adopted to win the user’s heart.

2.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT

After going through various studies about RFID, there are a few research gaps has
been diagnosed for this study. Most of the previous study focuses on the
implementation and potential of RFID implementation in the industries. But none of
the research touched on innovation of RFID in Malaysian daily usage. Secondly, there
are limited research on strategic marketing of RFID technology to Malaysian, other
than retails.

Furthermore, previous researches concentrated on specific industries and sectors rather

than on general used of RFID especially to layman people in Malaysia. Exposure on
RFID usage in Malaysia was only limited to these particular field , which can be seen
as a huge gap to general implementation to Malaysian as a whole.

2.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

To start research pertaining to RFID, few questions has been determined from the
floor. All of these relevant questions will be the backbone of this study to get the best
result out of this research.

RQ1: What would be the main attraction to expand RFID market in Malaysia?

RQ2: How would the RFID implementation could ease user’s life as a whole?

RQ3: In which area does RFID need to focus to enhance their usage?

RQ4: Does marketing recommendation would elevate the usage of RFID?

3
2.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

Based on the research questions, a clear research objectives have been constructed in
order to conduct this research. The research objectives consist of:

RO1: To identify gap of functionality of current RFID in Malaysia market.

RO2: To measure the level of user’s acceptance and adaptability of RFID
implementation in Malaysia.
RO3: To identify factors that influence user’s perceptions in existing marketing
strategies for RFID product in Malaysia.
RO4: To recommends on the best and effective marketing strategies for RFID
products in Malaysia.

3.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

3.1 RFID Innovation and Expansion Usage

RFID has received a lot of media coverage and researches worldwide. However the
execution and implementation of RFID are limited to several industries and sectors
(Boeck, Harold and Fosso Wamba, Samuel, 2008).

Boeck’s theory suggested that the use of an RFID enabled marketing tool that
interacts directly with users by having them be the tagged “object”, rather than tagging
the RFID onto other objects such as pallet, retail items etc. According to the study,
there are some of retails in US tagging their customers with RFID as a loyalty program.
It is done voluntarily where the RFID is tagged to user’s mobile and the database is
tracked from there. With this method, a lot of potential used of RFID could be explore
in Malaysia other than to only pays toll.

RFID technology has the potential to improve efficiency through more comprehensive
inventory management, resulting in cheaper costs and better results (Rundh, B. ,2008).
It also has the potential to reduce theft and imitation. Improved marketing strategy is
also aided by more accurate demand analysis. Integration with other internal and

4
external systems will be critical to maximising the utility of RFID technology (J.
Curtin, R. Kauffman, F Riggins , 2007). Because RFID is a new technology, the
standards connected with it will evolve over the next few years as support for various
technological capabilities develops.

3.2 User Acceptance and Adaptability

Although RFID may be a sought after technology that has emerged market innovation
nowadays, many of corporations or companies reluctant to bring the technology to
their practices. Only a few firms who dare to take the risk and technically trust RFID
technology has adopted the technology into their operations. These forward-thinking
firms and their marketing executives anticipate that consumers will be available and
eager to utilise RFID during their purchasing experience. However, if press reports are
to be believed, earlier implementations have met with strong opposition from some
consumer organisations, which could foreshadow the downfall of future projects if
experiences from their failure are not learned.

Most of the firms and users are sceptical about their privacy and confidentiality being
exposed while using RFID. Much of the RFID research on consumer-related elements
that has been conducted has centred on the idea of privacy, which has been highlighted
as a key effective implementation barrier (Uhrich, Fabian, Sandner, Uwe, Resatsch,
Florian, Leimeister, Jan Marco and Krcmar, Helmut,2008) and as the most important
expense to customers.

Consumers' attitudes about the protection of their privacy affects their willingness to
purchase tagged things or allow the use of items with residual RFID (Crazier, Joseph
A, Jensen, Andrew S and Dave, Dinesh S, 2008) . This means that the more the
significance consumers place on their privacy, the less probable RFID technology will
be used in retail. However, when RFID is included, customers appear to be fairly
privacy conscious, indicating that they may be likely to tolerate the use of RFID
technology in business.

5
In order to gather useful data for this research, certain methods selected according
approaches decided earlier.

3.2.1 Qualitative
For qualitative, interview method is used to dig more on the issues arises regarding the
research topic. To gain understanding on the cause of issues, interviewer will probe
deeper on information shared by respondents. User testimonial will be elaborated to
get more data from the identified and qualified respondents.

3.2.2 Quantitative
To pull together data for both pre and post intervention for this study, a set of survey
question is tailored under quantitative approach. The survey meant to determine any
changes in user satisfaction and adaptability, and also to measure the effectiveness of
the marketing strategy implemented.

3.3 Marketing Strategy Readiness

To further understands the marketing strategy that would works to introduce RFID
product to the market, the industry players readiness should be taken into
consideration. Some questions should be properly address.

The previous researches findings appear to be at odds with the apparent beliefs held
by early adopting shops when some firms opted to withdraw their RFID marketing
push in the face of strong resistance from advocacy groups (Boeck, H., Roy, J.,
Grégoire, M. et Durif, F. ,2011) . Some researches show that when consumers are
identified at a particular distance or even have their movements followed and their
conduct measured while in the store, they do not react as strongly as certain advocacy
groups predicted. These very strong first public reactions were maybe limited to a few,
but highly vocal extremist organisations, and stemmed from a reaction to a new and
misinterpreted technology. Lessons can be drawn from these early events, which set
the stage for many contemporary marketing projects incorporating RFID technology.

6
Recent examples of RFID carrying consumers include loyalty cards that provide
paperless coupons at checkout , provide recall notices and refunds , incorporate
the consumers' health diary and an RFID-enabled wristband that serves as wallet
. The study therefore recommends that marketing managers proceed cautiously
with RFID enabled marketing initiatives while keeping in sight their consumers’
intrusion threshold.

4.0 METHOD

According to Wikipedia, methodology is defined as the study of research methods,

Methodology is the study of research methods, formally described as, "'a contextual
framework' for research, a coherent and logical scheme based on views, beliefs, and
values, that guides the choices researchers [or other users] make"( Kara, Helen, 2015).
Methodology comprises of the theoretical analysis of the methods and principles
associated with chain of knowledge such that the methodologies adopted from
different fields which variation depends on their historical development. A scale of
methodology is created that broaden across contending understandings of how
knowledge and reality are best explained. This puts methodologies within key
philosophies and approaches (Niglas, Katrin, 2010).

Details of methodology used for this research will be covered and specific procedures
and techniques that will be used throughout the study will be outlined. Firstly,
philosophy of research will be indicated together with research flow process. This
chapter will concentrate on timeline/ milestone, analysis unit, degree of involvement
for this research Clarification of sampling framework, sampling size and sampling
type will be covered under population and sampling topic. Data collection obtained
through qualitative and quantitative method and relevant research instrument will be
elaborated further as well as validity method, which will emphasis on the content
validity, quality of journal, Expert Opinion Analysis (EOA) and triangulation.

Data analysis methods which includes descriptive analysis, T-test, coding and other
data analysis tools and techniques is explained further in this section.

7
4.1 Research Philosophy
A research philosophy is a set of beliefs about how data about a phenomena should be
collected, analysed, and applied. The term epistemology (what is known to be true)
rather than doxology (what is believed to be true) refers to the various research
approaches. The process of changing what is believed into what is known is what
science is all about: doxa to episteme.

4.1.1 Epistemology
In a business study, epistemology is a discipline of philosophy that deals with the
origins of information. Epistemology is largely concerned with the possibilities,
nature, sources, and limitations of information in the research field. Furthermore,
epistemology can be defined as the study of the standards by which researchers classify
what constitutes knowledge and what does not (Dudovskiy, 2018). Intuitive
knowledge, authoritarian knowledge, logical knowledge, and empirical knowledge are
the four types of knowledge that can be found in business research. However, the
research method can incorporate all of these sources of knowledge into a single study.
Researcher will be able to describe and enlighten on kinds of data or information
available, how it is gathered or extracted and how researcher recognize the knowledge
available should researcher implied to epistemology in this research.

4.1.1.1 Inductive Approach

One of the research methodologies that begins with observations and theories is the
inductive approach, often known as inductive reasoning. When developing research
questions and objectives, this technique focuses on avoiding theories and instead aims
to produce definitions from the data collected in order to find important trends and
relationships in order to generate a theory. Dudovskiy (2018), on the other hand, noted
that employing an inductive technique does not restrict researchers from creating
research questions based on established theory. Because the inductive technique is
more commonly linked with qualitative research, it begins with a face-to-face
interview with relevant users.

8
 4.2.1.2 Deductive Approach
There are no established rules, and logical methodologies may have been applied in
certain qualitative investigations (Gabriel, 2013). Deductive research begins with an
expected pattern that is checked against observation, whereas induction research
begins with observation and attempts to discover a pattern or hypothesis within the
observation produced (Blackstone, 2012). In his research, Dudovskiy (2018) stated
that the deductive approach is frequently described through hypotheses, which are
formed from the theory and allow researchers to build relevant research strategies to
test the hypotheses.

In the case of this study, data will be obtained by a questionnaire survey. The survey
data will be analysed with SPSS software to see how effective the marketing strategy
used during the time period. Aside from that, feedback forms and complaints will be
gathered followed the research interventions. The survey's results will then allow
researchers to examine in depth the importance of strategic marketing plans that could
enhance visibility RFID in Malaysia market.

5.0 RESULT & DISCUSSION

After reviewing related researches and findings, it is obvious that limited studies has
been made for this topic. Most of the articles and study were relevant for western view
but not for Asia’s market views, specifically Malaysia. The present studies are
focusing more on the advantage and implementation RFID in industry but none of the
research touch about the adaptability or level of acceptance for users as a whole.

Some daring firms taking the risk to use RFID in their business operation without
knowing the risk that they took on the action that may decrease their consumer base.
Research should look into this matter to get to the correct ways of introducing RFID
in Malaysia market efficient and effectively without compromising the quality
standard and also sensitivity of the community.

9
It is safe to conclude that there are three major area to be focused to tackle the issue of
RFID in Malaysia which are the innovation and expansion usage, user acceptance and
adaptability as well as marketing strategy readiness. Contradict to numerous
researches found on related topic worldwide, less than 1000 articles and researches
touching the Malaysia market situation. This could be a big opportunity for researchers
to grab, in order to minimize the barrier existed as compared to other country.

6.0 LIST OF REFERENCE

R. Das,An Introduction to RFID and Tagging Technologies(Cambridge, UK:

White paper, IDTechEx, 2002). Available viahttp://www.idtechex.com.
Accessed November 23, 2005.106Inf Technol Manage (2007) 8:87–110123
P. Zukaukas, J. Vveinhardt, R. Andriukaitiene Research Ethics Submitted: August
17th 2017Reviewed: August 21st 2017 Published: April 18th 2018 DOI:
10.5772/intechopen.70629

Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition,

Unabridged, W. A. Neilson, T. A. Knott, P. W. Carhart (eds.), G. & C. Merriam
Company, Springfield, MA, 1950. "Methodology Usage Notes", entry at
Merriam–Webster

Niglas, Katrin (2010), "The Multidimensional Model of Research Methodology: An

Integrated Set of Continua", SAGE Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social &
Behavioral Research, SAGE Publications, Inc., pp. 215–236

Boeck, Harold and Fosso Wamba, Samuel (2008) “RFID and buyer-seller
relationships in the retail supply chain.” International Journal of Retail &
Distribution Management, 36(6), pp. 433-460.

Rundh, B. (2008), "Radio frequency identification (RFID): Invaluable technology or

a new obstacle in the marketing process?", Marketing Intelligence & Planning,
Vol. 26 No. 1, pp. 97-114.

J. Curtin, R. Kauffman, F Riggins (2007), “Making the 'MOST' out of RFID

technology: A research agenda for the study of the adoption, usage and impact
of RFID”, Information Technology and Management (2007), 8(2) pp. 87-110

10
Uhrich, Fabian, Sandner, Uwe, Resatsch, Florian, Leimeister, Jan Marco and Krcmar,
Helmut (2008) “RFID in Retailing and Customer Relationship Management.”
The Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 23(13), pp.
219-234.

Crazier, Joseph A, Jensen, Andrew S and Dave, Dinesh S (2008) “The Impact of
Consumer Perceptions of Information Privacy and Security Risks on the
Adoption of Residual RFID Technologies.” Communications of the Association
for Information Systems, 23(14)

11