Determining technology trends and forecasts of RFID by a historical review and bibliometric analysis from 1991 to 2005

Radio frequency identification (RFID) has been identified as one of the ten greatest contributory technologies of the 21st century. This technology has found a rapidly growing market, with global sales expected to top US $7 billion by 2008. An increasing variety of enterprises are employing RFID to improve their efficiency of operations and to gain a competitive advantage. To shed light on RFID trends, and contributions, a historical review and bibliometric analysis are included in this research. The bibliometric analytical technique was used to examine this topic in SCI journals from 1991 through November of 2005. Also, a historical review method was used to analyze RFID innovation, adoption by organizations, and market diffusion. From the analysis of the study's findings, supply chain management (SCM), health industry, and privacy issues emerge as the major trends in RFID. Also, the contributions of the RFID industry and forecasts of technological trends were also analyzed, concluding that RFID will be more ubiquitously diffused and assimilated into our daily lives in the near future. (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier Ltd.