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This paper aims to present how the success of inter‐organizational systems (IOS) implementation projects can be increased by aligning the different incentives of buyers and suppliers.

The research method employed is case study and its unit of analysis is a network of supplier and wholesaler (buyer) companies acting in the Finnish technical trade industry, which are implementing inter‐organizational tracking. The implementation project followed an implementation process model developed to execute the case study.

For a buyer, the challenge in IOS implementation is that suppliers feel the adoption more difficult and have less identifiable benefits. However, in the case study, suppliers were ready to implement tracking solution because they understand that improvements in IOS help to apply common industry data exchange standards and will lead to better supply chain collaboration, which also increases their operational performance in the long run.

This paper concentrates on supplier and buyer incentives but also the role of other supply chain members such as logistics providers could be analyzed to examine different factors for IOS implementation.

If the buyer takes a cooperative approach to IOS integration, suppliers can be motivated to integrate tracking as a part of their own operations. This high‐level integration offers more options to improve the management and hence the performance of the whole supply chain than low‐level integration.

IOS implementation projects are seldom studied from the perspectives of buyers and suppliers in the supply chain.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a typology of radio frequency identification (RFID)-based tracking solution designs to fit differing fashion supply chains. The typology is presented as principles of form and function contributing toward a design theory of configurable RFID tracking for fashion logistics.

The typology is developed based on a case study of a logistics service provider (LSP) interested in designing a tracking solution for different customers in fashion logistics. In addition to the LSP, four fashion retailers were involved in the study. The case study was carried out using a review of existing RFID tracking implementations in the fashion industry, analysis of an RFID tracking pilot conducted by the case company, and interviews with representatives of the retailers.

By varying three design parameters (place of tagging, place of tracking start and place of tracking end) a tracking solution can be configured to fit the requirements and constraints of different fashion supply chains. In the fashion logistics context under investigation, such parameterization addresses retailer requirements, brings concrete and quantifiable benefits to both LSP and its customers, and enables incremental adoption of RFID tracking.

Although the typology is developed in the specific setting of a case company developing RFID tracking solutions for fashion logistics, the design parameters identified in the study can be used when considering configurable tracking solutions also in other domains and settings. However, further research is needed to evaluate the proposed typology in those settings.

The proposed typology enables fashion companies to consider which configuration of RFID tracking best fits the requirements and constraints imposed by their particular supply chain. For fashion companies, who find adoption of RFID tracking difficult despite the obvious benefits, the proposed typology enables incremental implementation of supply chain-wide tracking.

The developed typology, describing how RFID-based tracking solutions can be adjusted to fit the needs of fashion companies with differing supply chains and requirements, is novel. The typology is generalizable to most fashion logistics settings and probably to numerous other logistics domains.