A framework for stakeholder oriented mindfulness: case of RFID implementation at YCH Group, Singapore

Abstract

Implementation of innovative technology in organizations is often fraught with challenges. Past literature on mindfulness suggests that mindful implementation of innovative solutions facilitates success and enhances effectiveness for the organization. Integrating insights from the mindfulness and stakeholder perspectives, we present and analyze a longitudinal case study of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) implementation at YCH Group, a leading logistics provider in the Asia-Pacific region. Our objectives are to examine key attributes of mindfulness as well as identify specific organizational routines that fostered mindfulness at YCH that ultimately paved the way for effective implementation of RFID technology. Important lessons can be learnt from how YCH instituted organizational routines that enabled them to mindfully implement RFID, by explicitly considering both internal and external stakeholders.

Keywords:

• RFID
• YCH Group
• mindfulness
• stakeholder
• implementation

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank YCH Group for their invaluable assistance in this case study.

Notes

1 We thank one of the reviewers for highlighting this point to make the discussion richer.

2 Names of countries have been disguised.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thompson S H Teo

Thompson S.H. Teo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Decision Sciences at the School of Business, National University of Singapore. His research interests include strategic use of IT, e-commerce, adoption and diffusion of IT, strategic IT management and planning, and offshoring. He has published more than 100 papers in international refereed journals. He is Senior Associate Editor for the European Journal of Information Systems, Regional Editor (Asia and Pacific) for the International Journal of Information Management and is also on several editorial boards such as Communications of the AIS, Internet Research and Omega. He has co-edited four books on IT and e-commerce, and is also a three-time winner of the SIM Paper Awards Competition.

Shirish C Srivastava

Shirish C. Srivastava is an Assistant Professor at HEC School of Management, Paris. He obtained his Ph.D. from the School of Business, National University of Singapore. His research has been published in several international refereed journals such as MISQ Executive, Journal of Management Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, Communications of the AIS, Journal of Global Information Management, Information Resources Management Journal, and Electronic Government: An International Journal, among others. He has also authored several book chapters and has presented his research in key international refereed conferences like International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS), Academy of Management (AOM), Academy of International Business (AIB), Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), and Americas Conference on Information Systems (AMCIS). He has been thrice nominated for the prestigious Carolyn Dexter Award at the Academy of Management (AOM) Meetings 2005, 2007 and 2008 and was a finalist for the award at AOM 2007. Recently, he was nominated for the academy wide William H. Newman award at the AOM 2009, Chicago and is the winner of the Gerardine DeSanctis Dissertation Award for the best doctoral dissertation paper in organizational communication and information systems. He has also been a winner at the Society for Information Management (SIM) Paper Awards Competition, 2007. His research interests include IT-enabled offshore sourcing, e-government, IS strategy and e-business strategy.

Chandrasekaran Ranganathan

Chandrasekaran Ranganathan is Associate Professor of Information Systems at the Liautaud Graduate School of Business, University of Illinois at Chicago. His current interests include IS outsourcing, strategic management of information systems, IT-enabled organizational transformation and business value of IT investments. Ranganathan holds a doctorate from the Indian Institute of Management of Management, Ahmedabad and a Masters degree from BITS, Pilani, India. His writing has appeared in several journals including Communications of the ACM, Decision Sciences Journal, Information & Management, Information Systems Management, Information Systems Research, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Journal of IT, Journal of Strategic Information Systems and MIS Quarterly Executive, among others. He has consulted and researched for several national and multinational corporations across the globe. He is the winner of the Best Doctoral Dissertation Award and the Best Teaching Case Award at the International Conference on Information Systems and he is also a three-time winner of the SIM's Paper Awards Competition.

James W K Loo

James W.K. Loo is CIO of YCH Group, responsible for the Group and its subsidiaries’ IT strategies and performance. He led the Group's move to spin off their IT department into an independent IT company – Y3 Technologies. James has more than 25 years of management and IT experience having served in senior management positions at Cincom Systems (an ERP application software vendor), ObTech Asia Pacific, an NEC Corp subsidiary focusing on IT consultancy and services and Viewlocity Asia Pacific, an SCM solution vendor. James also contributes actively to the industry serving on the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A^*STAR) Get-Up Advisory Council, Singapore Logistics Authority (SLA) Technology/e-Logistics SubCommittee, Member of Standards, Productivuty and Innovation Board (SPRING) Standards Technical Committee – Supply Chain Management and Workforce Development Agency-Infocomm Development Authority (WDA-IDA) National Infocomm Competency Framework Technical Committee. His past contributions include having served as the Deputy Chairman 2002–2004 on the Singapore eSCM Council and was appointed onto Economic Development Board (EDB) User Council for Logistics & Transportation Industry 2003–2005. He is the immediate past Chairman of Singapore IT Federation Wireless Chapter and also appointed to the Advisory Board of Singapore Management University, SIS Masters Programme.