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Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2007 11:47:58 +0800
From: "Indranil Bose" <bose@business.hku.hk>

Call for Papers for Special Volume
of Communications of the Association for Information Systems (CAIS)
Theme: RFID in Retailing and Customer Relationship Management

The use of RFID in retailing and customer relationship management (CRM) has been envisaged since the late 1990s. RFID caught the attention of the media when giant retailers like Wal-Mart, Tesco, Target, and Albertson’s announced that they are going to adopt RFID for efficient supply chain management and demanded that their suppliers become RFID compliant. The key advantage of RFID is that it lends increased visibility to an item or pallet as it moves along the supply chain from the manufacturer to the retailer. Although an expensive technology, RFID has proved to be a popular among manufacturers. It has been reported in a survey conducted in 2006 that 40% of manufacturers have already developed an RFID implementation timeline. In contrast to that, only 9% of retailers have done so. ÂÜÀòÉç¹ÙÍøt 60% of the retailers in this group are large retailers with more than $5 billion in annual revenues and they have reported an increase in their spending as the novel technology is being introduced to increasing number of product lines. However, only 29% of the retailers expect to have a RFID enabled pilot store opened by the end of 2006 (Kilcourse, 2006). In spite of the mandate of retail giants like Wal-Mart, in general retailers have been slow in adopting this technology.

In spite of the slow adoption rate, it is widely believed that the contribution of RFID for retailing and CRM can be manifold. This includes better shelf-space management and recall of products, reduction of human errors in day-to-day operations, reduction of shrinkage, better product promotions for customers, better service delivery to customers, efficient customer and product profiling, among others. It is believed that in future RFID tags will be able to recognize customers and deliver customized shopping experience to each individual customer. The customer’s identity will be recognized through the RFID chip embedded in his/her membership card. A series of real-time analysis will follow and relevant information about the customer will be downloaded to the store immediately when his/her presence is detected. In terms of customer satisfaction, knowing the customers well will help the salesmen in serving the customers better. It will create a unique and special feeling for the customer when all the needs are well catered for and will lead to increased customer fulfillment and long term customer loyalty. Prada has already made use of RFID in allowing customers to view fashion shows where models wear apparels chosen and tracked by the customers (Juels et al., 2003) and Wynn Las Vegas has utilized an RFID based tracking system to fight fraud and to allow guests easy access to house credit (Eckfeldt, 2005).

This special volume of CAIS will focus on advancing research in the use of RFID for retailing and CRM by publishing forward-thinking, rigorous research that stimulates future research on RFID. The special volume will encourage research that uses empirical, analytical, or case study approach and either strives to generate insightful theoretical principles or provide validation of existing theories in the context of the use of RFID in retailing and CRM. Research from diverse academic disciplines such as operations management, information systems, computer science, operations research, marketing, strategic management, and other related areas are welcome for this special volume. This special volume seeks original manuscripts that are previously unpublished and that present an interdisciplinary approach in solving problems related to the theme. 

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to the following:

• RFID for management of shelf-space in retail stores
• RFID for personalized and assisted shopping experiences
• RFID in the service of customers with special needs
• User attitudes and perceptions towards use of RFID in CRM
• Technologies that enable the use of RFID in retailing and CRM
• Integration of RFID technology with enterprise systems
• Management of RFID data in retailing activities
• Mining RFID data for customer profiling
• RFID data analysis for consumer demand management
• RFID for management of returns
• Security and privacy issues related to use of RFID for CRM
• Enablers that influence the adoption of RFID in retailing and CRM
• Challenges in the adoption of RFID for retailing and CRM
• Managing RFID implementation projects in retailing
• Societal impacts of use of RFID in retailing
• Country and industry specific studies on the use of RFID in retailing and CRM

Guest editors for CAIS special volume:

Dr. Indranil Bose
The University of Hong Kong
bose@business.hku.hk

Dr. Jae-Nam Lee
Korea University
isjnlee@korea.ac.kr

Dr. Benjamin Yen
The University of Hong Kong
benyen@business.hku.hk

Guest editorial review board:

Apurva Jain, Associate Professor, University of Washington
Anand Paul, Associate Professor, University of Florida
Carol Hsu, Assistant Professor, National Chengchi University
Dongwon Lee, Assistant Professor, Korea University
Giri K. Tayi, Professor, SUNY Albany
Ji-Ye Mao, Professor, Renmin University
Mihir A. Parikh, Assistant Professor, University of Central Florida
Minh Huynh, Assistant Professor, Southeastern Louisiana University
Radha Mahapatra, Associate Professor, University of Texas at Arlington
Raktim Pal, Assistant Professor, James Madison University
Riyaz Sikora, Associate Professor, University of Texas at Arlington
Sagnika Sen, Associate Professor, California State University Fullerton
Selwyn Piramuthu, Associate Professor, University of Florida
Vince Duffy, Associate Professor, Purdue University
Youngjin Yoo, Associate Professor, Temple University

Important dates:

1 October 2007: Due date for full paper submissions for special volume
1 November 2007: Outcomes of initial screening sent to authors
1 February 2008: Outcomes of first round reviews sent to corresponding authors
1 April 2008: Due date for resubmission of papers with required revisions
1 June 2008: Final decision
1 August 2008: Due date for authors to submit papers formatted according to instructions
October 2008: Target publication date of special volume

Instructions for submission:

A submitted paper must not have been published, accepted for publication, or presently be under consideration for publication elsewhere. A traditional peer review process will be used to select papers for the special volume. Any paper that fails to meet the required revisions after the reviews will be rejected. Electronic submission is required. In order to ensure further consideration, the submitted manuscript must be formatted for CAIS, according to the directions specified in the document titled “AIS Publication Style” that can be downloaded from . The formatted manuscript in PDF format must be emailed to bose@business.hku.hk. A complete submission must include three separate PDF files: (1) the cover letter, (2) the title page, and (3) the manuscript without authors’ names.  Accepted papers will be submitted to the CAIS office in Microsoft Word files for publication purposes.

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