Technology Regulation Policy for Business Ethics: An Example of RFID in Supply Chain Management

With the increase in use of a technology, its misuse possibility also increases in general. Moreover, there are instances where new technologies are implemented without thoroughly testing for vulnerabilities. We consider RFID, a disruptive technology, and related vulnerabilities in existing supply chain applications from an ethics perspective. We develop an extended ethics model to incorporate the effects of emerging information and communication technologies, specifically that of RFID systems, including technology selection, social consequences, and practitioners’ rationality. We introduce a set of matrices for technology regulation development based on this model to serve as a communication tool for the policy maker for policy design regulation. We use the case of RFID to illustrate the model and matrices.