Benefit and Cost of RFID Technology to Container Ports: A Competitive Perspective

Abstract

Fu, H. and Sun, F.S., 2020. Benefit and cost of RFID technology to container ports: A competitive perspective. In: Gong, D.; Zhang, M., and Liu, R. (eds.), Advances in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 106, pp. 494–497. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.The container ports serving overlapped hinterlands compete actively with each other, and radio-frequency identification (RFID) adoption serves as a way for a container port to improve its competitiveness. As an investment, the port measures the revenue and cost of RFID adoption to determine whether and when to bring in RFID. The present paper reviews existing literature on measuring the revenue and cost of RFID adoption to a container port and puts forward our point, which highlights the necessity for a port to measure the revenue of RFID adoption from a competitive perspective. Specifically, the port should focus on not only the impact of RFID adoption on port efficiency, but also the change of relative market share due to RFID adoption (or nonadoption). Further, we investigate the port's optimal RFID adoption strategy under competition on the basis of a game-theoretic model, and our result may explain the phenomenon that in reality, even well-matched ports will not adopt RFID simultaneously.