Abstract
The strong competition from emerging economies suffered by Italian's textile and clothing industry has been promoting traceability initiatives as possible sources of brand distinction and competitive advantage. "Traccia" is one of these initiatives, where the coordinated efforts of local governments, certifications laboratories, a industry association, a university and companies aimed at the diffusion of a methodology for traceability that allows companies to add, to their products, informative labels reporting items' whole history. This paper analyzes the perspective emergence of the use of an RFId system for traceability from three different inter-related viewpoints: the firm level, the industry level and the external environment level. RFId adoption is then discussed on the base of the reciprocal influence a firm could have over the technology, its capabilities and the interorganizational environment. The study shows that the adoption of RFId systems is still dismissed despite the strong evidence of potential benefits and the sponsoring role of local authorities and industry associations. Challenges are posed not only from structural factors (i.e., size, IT competences and commitment) but also from the issues related to the creation of an interoperable infrastructure, the development of the traceability nodes of coordination and the involvement of focal players as initiators and adopters of the system.