Brave new world: service robots in the frontline

Journal of Service Theory and Practice

PurposeThe purpose of this article was to provide an outline of the citation practices of “Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing” by Vargo and Lusch (2004) to identify and discuss the most prominent research topics in which citations were used and to suggest future research based on the results of the analysis.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used a comprehensive framework of citation practices based on iterations of previous literature to analyze the relevant literature, which they identified by accessing, systematically and rigorously, every available contribution matching a set of criteria. The authors then categorized these contributions and highlighted the main topics of research interest in each category.FindingsThe findings identify some of the factors in the continuous development of SDL, the way this new marketing logic permeated the scientific debate, the infusion of Vargo and Lusch (2004) into several contributions framed in the new logic or justified throu...

Journal of Communication Management

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to review the extant literature on chatbots and stakeholder interactions to identify major trends and shed light on knowledge gaps.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review was conducted combining qualitative and quantitative approaches. A code book based on early systematic literature reviews was developed and used to extract information from 62 discrete peer-reviewed English articles. An inductive approach was used to analyse definitions of chatbots, topics, metrics, perspectives and implications.FindingsChatbots have been studied by many different disciplines, but not much from organizational, stakeholder and corporate communication perspectives. Existing studies focus on the technical developments of chatbots and chatbot language and conversations skills. Research has remained anchored at the micro-level understanding of the phenomenon, that is, the nature of chatbots, but has not yet taken into consideration the meso (organiza...

Electronic Markets

The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and service robots in the tourism industry for frontline service automation is generating a growing interest. Although there is a fairly large body of literature about this research field, the impacts on the service encounter need to be further investigated. The paper presents an action research project that led to employ the humanoid robot “Pepper”, equipped with a supervised machine-learning AI system, at the reception of an Italian hotel to provide information to clients. This allowed to explore the role played by this agent and the effects on the changing role taken by frontline employees (FLE) and customers. Findings show that this technology can act as an augmentation force and that FLEs’ role can evolve mainly into that of enabler - of the customers and of technology -, innovator and coordinator, while customers may take above all the role of enabler of the technology. The study also contributes to introduce the new role of “AI sup...

Journal of Service Research

Digitalization has the potential to disrupt many service industries. This is already evident in industries offering standardized business-to-consumer services. Even knowledge-intensive business-to-business (B2B) services have increasingly blended digital technologies. Yet, little is known about how this type of service and its associated service work has changed, as tasks are being increasingly performed by robots or through artificial intelligence. This study fills this void by exploring how frontline workers in two highly knowledge-intensive B2B service industries—auditing and public relations/communication (PR/C) consulting—enact their service work in response to digitalization. Building on an interview study with 50 professionals and taking an interdisciplinary stance we find—contrary to the findings in previous research—that auditing firms embrace digitalization to a larger extent than PR/C firms. Further, we find that the frontline workers’ enactment of their service work is i...

Journal of Services Marketing

Purpose This paper highlights the suitability, application and fruitful opportunities for ethnographic methodologies in contemporary B2B service research. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on a literature review and conceptual analysis of ethnographic research methodology and B2B service literatures. Findings This paper discusses the central features of ethnographic research methodologies, their key differences to other qualitative methodologies, key trends in contemporary B2B service research and opportunities for ethnographic research methodologies in selected priority areas. Research limitations/implications This paper highlights the opportunities, unique strengths and specific advantages of ethnographic research methodologies to advance B2B service research and theory development. Practical implications This paper encourages B2B firms to undertake ethnographic field projects to better understand customers’ roles, experiences and usage processes that relate to B2B s...

Recherche et Applications en Marketing (French Edition), 2021

Alors que la recherche sur la cocréation est prolifique, les travaux existants ne particularisent pas la manière dont elle se manifeste sur les plateformes digitales. De plus, ces travaux ont essentiellement examiné le processus de cocréation en lui-même, et non le résultat de ce processus, c’est-à-dire, la valeur cocréée. Un examen plus approfondi s’avère donc nécessaire, en particulier dans un contexte digital. A ce titre, nous nous focalisons dans cet article sur la Valeur Cocréée Digitale du Consommateur (ou « VCDC »), qui désigne la valeur perçue par le consommateur telle qu’elle résulte de l’interaction, de la collaboration ou de la communication avec ou via des plateformes digitales. Nous distinguons les plateformes digitales (i) homme-homme (H2HP ; par exemple, les médias sociaux) et (ii) homme-machine (H2MP), celles-ci comprenant (a) les plateformes à base d’automatisation des processus robotiques (par exemple, les centres d’appels) et (b) les plateformes à base d’apprentis...

The Service Industries Journal

Service robots and artificial intelligence promise to increase productivity and reduce costs, prompting substantial growth in sales of service robots and research dedicated to understanding their implications. Nevertheless, marketing research on this phenomenon is scarce. To establish some fundamental insights related to this research domain, the current article seeks to complement research on robots' human-likeness with investigations of the factors that service managers must choose for the service robots implemented in their service setting. A three-part framework, comprised of robot design, customer features, and service encounter characteristics, specifies key factors within each category that need to be analyzed together to determine their optimal adaptation to different service components. Definitions and overlapping concepts are clarified, together with previous knowledge on each variable and research gaps that need to be solved. This framework and the final research questions provide a research agenda to guide scholars and help practitioners implement service robots successfully.

Electronic Markets

Robots are being implemented in many frontline services, from waiter robots in restaurants to robotic concierges in hotels. A growing number of firms in hospitality and tourism industries introduce service robots to reduce their operational costs and to provide customers with enhanced services (e.g. greater convenience). In turn, customers may consider that such a disruptive innovation is altering the established conditions of the service-provider relationship. Based on attribution theory, this research explores how customers’ attributions about the firm motivations to implement service robots (i.e. cost reduction and service enhancement) are affecting customers’ intentions to use and recommend this innovation. Following previous research on robot’s acceptance, our research framework analyzes how these attributions may be shaped by customers’ perceptions of robot’s human-likeness and their affinity with the robot. Structural equation modelling is used to analyze data collected from ...

Journal of Service Management

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the history and future of service operations, with the goal to identify key theoretical and technological advances, as well as fundamental themes that can help to imagine the future of service operations in 2050. Design/methodology/approach A review of the service operations literature was undertaken to inform a discussion regarding the role that technology will play in the future of service operations. Findings The future of service operations is framed in terms of three key themes – complexity, orchestration, and elasticity. The paper makes three contributions to the service science literature by: reviewing key themes underpinning extant service operations research to frame future trajectories of service operations research; elaborating a vision of service operations in 2050 based on history and technology; and outlining a research agenda for future service operations. Practical implications The case of service automation is used to ...

Journal of Service Management

PurposeLoneliness and isolation are on the rise, globally threatening the well-being across age groups; global social distancing measures during the COVID-19 crisis have intensified this so-called “loneliness virus”. The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrative framework and research agenda on the role of companion robots in mitigating feelings of loneliness.Design/methodology/approachA netnographic analysis of 595 online visual and textual descriptions offer empirical insights about the role of the companion robot Vector during the COVID-19 pandemic.FindingsThe contributions of this study are twofold. First, it postulates that companion robots have the potential of mitigating feelings of loneliness (i.e. indicator of well-being). Second, this study contributes to transformative service by developing an integrative framework introducing the roles (personal assistant, relational peer and intimate buddy) that companion robots can fulfill to mitigate feelings of loneliness th...

Innovative Marketing

Various recently-introduced applications of artificial intelligence (AI) operate at the interface between businesses and consumers. This paper looks at whether these innovations have relevant implications for marketing theory. The latest literature on the connection between AI and marketing has emphasized a great variety of AI applications that qualify this relationship. Based on these studies but focusing only on the applications with a direct impact on the relationship at the very heart of marketing, i.e., the one between firms and consumers, the paper analyzes three categories of AI applications: AI-based shipping-then-shopping, AI-based service robots, and AI-based smart products and domestic robots. The main result of this first analysis is that all three categories have to do, each in their own way, with mass customization. A discussion of this common trait leads us to recognize their ways to mass customization that – unlike the traditional approach developed thanks to flexibl...

International Journal of Social Robotics, 2021

The objective of this study was to understand how consumers react and respond to a service experience provided by the robot, Pepper. To form our predictions, we applied and tested an extended version of the technology acceptance model (TAM). For the method, pre-recorded gestures were used to attract people to interact with Pepper, and participants were asked to pose questions to the robot for 5 to 10 min. Then, we distributed a questionnaire to these participants to gather data on their impressions of the interaction. Based on a final sample of 180 respondents, we used structural equation modeling (SEM) to test our hypotheses. Our results showed the fundamental importance of Social Presence when it comes to the use of robots. Social presence had a direct positive effect on Usefulness, Trust, and Emotional Appeal, and significant indirect effects through all three paths on Intention to Use. Moreover, The Fear of Robots negatively impacted the Intention to Use. We also found that when...

Journal of Services Marketing

Purpose While there is burgeoning service literature identifying consumer vulnerabilities and questioning the assumption that all consumers have the resources to co-create, limited research addresses solutions for consumers experiencing vulnerabilities. Service systems can provide support for consumers but can also create inequities and experienced vulnerabilities. This paper aims to identify current and further research needed to explore this issue and addresses marketplace problems for consumers experiencing vulnerabilities. Design/methodology/approach This viewpoint discusses key issues relating to solving marketplace problems for consumers experiencing vulnerabilities. A call for papers focused on solving marketplace problems for consumers experiencing vulnerabilities resulted in a large number of submissions. Nine papers are included in this special issue, and each one is discussed in this editorial according to five emergent themes. Findings Vulnerabilities can be temporary, o...

Sustainability

In its sustainable tourism agenda for 2030, the UN World Tourism Organization has embraced three United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. One of these, specifically SDG 8, highlights the need to pursue decent work and growth. Nevertheless, despite the growing recognition of this target and although there is a growing number of writings lamenting the precarity characterizing many tourism-related jobs, the topic of tourism-related work continues to receive sparse attention in the considerable volume of academic literature on tourism and sustainability. This paper attempts to redress this neglect. First, by providing a review of extant studies on tourism labor, we seek to explain why this research lacuna continues to exist. We then examine organizational and technological aspects of tourism governance, which hinder attempts to establish decent work and improve dignity in the tourism industry worldwide. By acknowledging the volatile and liminal status of tourism work and future lab...

Ai & Society, 2021

Profit-oriented service sectors such as tourism, hospitality, and entertainment are increasingly looking at how professional service robots can be integrated into the workplace to perform socio-cognitive tasks that were previously reserved for humans. This is a work in which social and labor sciences recognize the principle role of emotions. However, the models and narratives of emotions that drive research, design, and deployment of service robots in human–robot interaction differ considerably from how emotions are framed in the sociology of labor and feminist studies of service work. In this paper, we explore these tensions through the concepts of affective and emotional labor, and outline key insights these concepts offer for the design and evaluation of professional service robots. Taken together, an emphasis on interactionist approaches to emotions and on the demands of affective labor, leads us to argue that service employees are under-represented in existing studies in human–...

International Journal of Social Robotics

The goal of this research is to focus on the ethical issues linked to the interaction between humans and robots in a service delivery context. Through this user study, we want to see how ethics influence user’s intention to use a robot in a frontline service context. We want to observe the importance of each ethical attribute on user’s intention to use the robot in the future. To achieve this goal, we incorporated a video that showed Pepper, the robot, in action. Then respondents had to answer questions about their perception of robots based on the video. Based on a final sample of 341 respondents, we used structural equation modeling (SEM) to test our hypotheses. The results show that the most important ethical issue is the Replacement and its implications for labor. When we look at the impact of the ethical issues on the intention to use, we discovered that the variables impacting the most are Social cues, Trust and Safety.

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

In the future, artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to substantially change both marketing strategies and customer behaviors. Building from not only extant research but also extensive interactions with practice, the authors propose a multidimensional framework for understanding the impact of AI involving intelligence levels, task types, and whether AI is embedded in a robot. Prior research typically addresses a subset of these dimensions; this paper integrates all three into a single framework. Next, the authors propose a research agenda that addresses not only how marketing strategies and customer behaviors will change in the future, but also highlights important policy questions relating to privacy, bias and ethics. Finally, the authors suggest AI will be more effective if it augments (rather than replaces) human managers.

Journal of Information Technology Teaching Cases

Humanoid service robots made swift progress in extending a helping hand to the strained global healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. This case provides an overview of the robots’ inclusion in healthcare regarding pre- and intra-pandemic contexts. Specific focus is devoted to humanoid service robots as their shape, size, and mobility make them advantageous in using the physical spaces designed for humans. A collection of examples from hospitals worldwide is presented in illustrating the humanoid service robots’ deployment in healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pointed future directions aim to facilitate better decision- and policy-making that may ease human anxiety and promote greater acceptance.

Journal of Service Management

PurposeHow to improve healthcare for the ageing population is attracting academia attention. Emerging technologies (i.e. robots and intelligent agents) look relevant. This paper aims to analyze the role of cognitive assistants as boundary objects in value co-creation practices. We include the perceptions of the main actors – patients, (in)formal caregivers, healthcare professionals – for a fuller network perspective to understand the potential overlap between boundary work and value co-creation practices.Design/methodology/approachWe adopted a grounded approach to gain a contextual understanding design to effectively interpret context and meanings related to human–robot interactions. The study context concerns 21 health solutions that had embedded the Watson cognitive platform and its adoption by the youngest cohort (50–64-year-olds) of the ageing population.FindingsThe cognitive assistant acts as a boundary object by bridging actors, resources and activities. It enacts the boundary...

Journal of Service Management

Purpose The collaborative economy (CE), and within it, collaborative consumption (CC) has become a central element of the global economy and has substantially disrupted service markets (e.g. accommodation and individual transportation). The purpose of this paper is to explore the trends and develop future scenarios for market structures in the CE. This allows service providers and public policy makers to better prepare for potential future disruption. Design/methodology/approach Thought experiments – theoretically grounded in population ecology (PE) – are used to extrapolate future scenarios beyond the boundaries of existing observations. Findings The patterns suggested by PE forecast developmental trajectories of CE leading to one of the following three future scenarios of market structures: the centrally orchestrated CE, the social bubbles CE, and the decentralized autonomous CE. Research limitations/implications The purpose of this research was to create CE future scenarios in 20...

Journal of Business Ethics, 2022

Business, management, and business ethics literature pay little attention to the topic of AI robots. The broad spectrum of potential ethical issues pertains to using driverless cars, AI robots in care homes, and in the military, such as Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems. However, there is a scarcity of in-depth theoretical, methodological, or empirical studies that address these ethical issues, for instance, the impact of morality and where accountability resides in AI robots’ use. To address this dearth, this study offers a conceptual framework that interpretively develops the ethical implications of AI robot applications, drawing on descriptive and normative ethical theory. The new framework elaborates on how the locus of morality (human to AI agency) and moral intensity combine within context-specific AI robot applications, and how this might influence accountability thinking. Our theorization indicates that in situations of escalating AI agency and situational moral intensity, ac...

SHS Web of Conferences, 2022

This study intends to utilize eye tracking for the appearance of a robot, which is one of the trends in social robot design research. We suggest a research model with the entire stage from the consumer gaze response to the perceived consumer beliefs and further their attitudes toward social robots. Specifically, the eye tracking indicators used in this study are Fixation, First Visit, Total Viewed Stay Time, and Number of Revisits. Also, Areas of Interest are selected to the face, eyes, lips, and full-body of a social robot. In the first relationship, we check which element of the social robot design the consumer’s gaze stays on, and how the gaze on each element affects consumer beliefs. The consumer beliefs are considered as the social robot’s emotional expression, humanness, and facial prominence. Second, we explore whether the formation of consumer attitudes is possible through two major channels. One is the path that the consumer beliefs formed through the gaze influence their a...

Journal of Services Marketing, 2022

Purpose Retailers are increasingly considering the introduction of service robots in their stores to support or even replace service staff. Service robots can execute service scripts during the service encounter that can influence customer interactions and the overall experience. While the role of service agents is well documented, more research is needed to understand customer responses to a technology-infused servicescape and to investigate the value of service robots as interaction partners. The purpose of this study is to examine the degree of customer immersion in human-human or human-robot interactions across different stages of the service experience and to understand how immersion affects store visit duration under each condition. Design/methodology/approach An experimental field study was developed to test the research hypotheses. The study was conducted in a retail store selling premium Italian leather goods with 50 respondents randomly allocated to one of two experimental...

Scientific Reports, 2022

Mobile robots are deployed in the built environment at increasing rates. However, lack of considerations for a robot-inclusive planning has led to physical spaces that would potentially pose hazards to robots, and contribute to an overall productivity decline for mobile service robots. This research proposes the use of an adapted Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) as a structured tool to evaluate a building’s level of robot-inclusivity and safety for service robot deployments. This Robot-Inclusive FMEA (RIFMEA) framework, is used to identify failures in the built environment that compromise the workflow of service robots, assess their effects and causes, and provide recommended actions to alleviate these problems. The method was supported with a case study of deploying telepresence robots in a university campus. The study concluded that common failures were related to poor furniture design, a lack of clearance and hazard indicators, and sub-optimal interior planning.

International Journal of Social Robotics, 2021

In recent years, the rapid ageing of the population, a longer life expectancy and elderly people’s desire to live independently are social changes that put pressure on healthcare systems. This context is boosting the demand for companion and entertainment social robots on the market and, consequently, producers and distributors are interested in knowing how these social robots are accepted by consumers. Based on technology acceptance models, a parsimonious model is proposed to estimate the intention to use this new advanced social robot technology and, in addition, an analysis is performed to determine how consumers’ gender and rational thinking condition the precedents of the intention to use. The results show that gender differences are more important than suggested by the literature. While women gave greater social influence and perceived enjoyment as the main motives for using a social robot, in contrast, men considered their perceived usefulness to be the principal reason and, ...

Applied Sciences, 2021

The 2021 sales volume in the market of service robots is attractive. Expert reports from the International Federation of Robotics confirm 27 billion USD in total market share. Moreover, the number of new startups with the denomination of service robots nowadays constitutes 29% of the total amount of robotic companies recorded in the United States. Those data, among other similar figures, remark the need for formal development in the service robots area, including knowledge transfer and literature reviews. Furthermore, the COVID-19 spread accelerated business units and some research groups to invest time and effort into the field of service robotics. Therefore, this research work intends to contribute to the formalization of service robots as an area of robotics, presenting a systematic review of scientific literature. First, a definition of service robots according to fundamental ontology is provided, followed by a detailed review covering technological applications; state-of-the-ar...

International Journal of E-Business Research, 2022

The purpose of the study is to elucidate linkage of Omnichannel retail business model with innovation and technological advancements. The study is exploratory and qualitative in nature, based on primary and secondary data sources collected from varied retail sectors such as fashion, furniture, eyecare and electronics . The study has used Business Model Canvass (BMC) as a tool for strategic analysis. The study presents findings about business model and strategies in Omnichannel context from Indian retailers. The findings of the study posits four main dimensions resultant of digitalization and technological advancements in Omnichannel retail, namely Omnichannel Intensity, Organizational Structure Integration, Operations and Supply Chain Management Innovation, Data Analytics and Intelligence. Cross-channel Integration and Data Analytics & Intelligence have been found to be contributing enormously towards the strategic growth of Omnichannel retailers, thus emerging as the prominent mana...

2021

Services are intangible in nature and as a result, it is often difficult to measure the quality of the service. In the service literature, the service is usually delivered by a human to a human customer and the quality of the service is often evaluated using the SERVQUAL dimensions. An extensive review of the literature shows there is a lack of an empirical model to assess the perceived service quality provided by a social robot. Furthermore, the social robot literature highlights key differences between human service and social robots. For example, scholars have highlighted the importance of entertainment value and engagement in the adoption of social robots in the service industry. However, it is unclear whether the SERVQUAL dimensions are appropriate to measure social robot's service quality. The paper proposes the SERVBOT model to assess a social robot's service quality. It identifies, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and entertainment as the five dimensions of SERVBOT. Further, the research will investigate how these five factors influence emotional engagement and future intentions to use the social robot in a concierge service setting. The model was tested using student sampling, and a total of 94 responses were collected for the study. The findings indicate empathy and entertainment value as key predictors of emotional engagement. Further, emotional engagement is a strong predictor of future intention to use a social robot in a service setting. This study is the first to propose the SERVBOT model to measure social robot's service quality. The model provides a theoretical underpinning on the key service quality dimensions of a social robot and gives scholars and managers a method to track the service quality of a social robot. The study also extends on the literature by exploring the key factors that influence the use of social robots (i.e. emotional engagement).

Journal of Healthcare Engineering

Prior to COVID-19, the tourism industry was one of the important sectors of the world economy. This study intends to measure the perception of Chinese tourists concerning the spread of COVID-19 in China. The crowding perception, xenophobia, and ethnocentrism are the measurement indicators of the study. A five-point Likert scale is used to predict the perception of the tourists in various destinations. The Kaiser–Mayer–Olkin test and Cronbach’s alpha are conducted to ensure the validity and reliability of the corresponding items. SPSS version 21 is used to obtain factor loading, mean values, and standard deviation. Regression analysis is used to measure the strength of the constructs’ relationship and prove the hypotheses. Questionnaires have been filled from 730 Chinese respondents. Artificial neural networks and confusion matrices are used for validation and performance evaluation, respectively. Results show that crowding perception, xenophobia, and ethnocentrism caused the spread ...

2020

Service robots and artificial intelligence promise to improve the service quality. Robotics in combination with rapidly improving technologies like artificial intelligence, bring opportunities for a wide range of innovations that have the potential to change service quality in hotel industry. Based on an extensive literature review, this article presents the acceptance of service robots in hotel industry. The paper acknowledges that the adoption of the robots and artificial intelligence on service quality is focused on the challenges of technological characteristics, customers’ readiness and practical effectiveness of the business. The study provides a comprehensive and systematic review of robots and AI concepts in a hotel industry and examines their impacts on service quality. The hotel industry future is going to be affected with high-tech tourism companies offering robot-automated services which rely on guidance to adopt and integrate robotics into their customer service operati...

Journal of Services Marketing, 2021

Purpose This study aims to examine humans’ reactions to service robots’ display of warmth in robot-to-robot interactions – a setting in which humans’ impressions of a service robot will not only be based on what this robot does in relation to humans, but also on what it does to other robots. Design/methodology/approach Service robot display of warmth was manipulated in an experimental setting in such a way that a service robot A expressed low versus high levels of warmth in relation to another service robot B. Findings The results indicate that a high level of warmth expressed by robot A vis-à-vis robot B boosted humans’ overall evaluations of A, and that this influence was mediated by the perceived humanness and the perceived happiness of A. Originality/value Numerous studies have examined humans’ reactions when they interact with a service robot or other synthetic agents that provide service. Future service encounters, however, will comprise also multi-robot systems, which means t...

European Journal of Marketing, 2021

Purpose Firms have begun to introduce virtual agents (VAs) in service encounters, both in online and offline environments. Such VAs typically resemble human frontline employees in several ways (e.g. the VAs may have a gender and a name), which indicates the presence of an assumption by VA designers – and by firms that employ them – that VA humanness is a positively charged characteristic. This study aims to address this assumption by examining antecedents to perceived humanness in terms of attribution of agency, emotionality and morality, and the impact of perceived humanness on customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach A questionnaire was distributed online to participants who had been interacting with existing VAs, and they were asked to focus on one of them for this study. The questionnaire comprised measures of antecedents to perceived humanness of VAs, perceived humanness per se and customer satisfaction. A structural equation modeling approach was used to assess assoc...

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2021

Few existing virtual agents (VAs) that customers interact with in service encounters can experience emotions, but they can be (and often are) designed so that they appear to have this capability. The purpose of this study was to assess VAs' display of happiness in service encounters when the only means they have to express themselves is the text that they transmit. Linguistic elements that influence the perceived happiness of a (human) sender of text messages were identified in a pilot study, and they were used to manipulate VA display of happiness in two experiments. In addition, a field study was carried out to capitalize on customers' existing experience of service encounters with VAs in bona fide commercial settings. The experiments showed that VA text manipulated to signal VA happiness boosts overall VA evaluations, and the field study showed that perceived VA happiness is positively associated with overall VA evaluations. Taken together, the findings indicate that we humans are so hardwired for interactions with other humans that we react to VA display of happiness in ways that resemble our reactions when we are exposed to happy humans. The findings also provide designers of VAs and service marketers with a set of easily implemented linguistic elements that can be employed to make VAs appear happy in service encounters.

Journal of Tourism Futures

PurposeThis is a general review study aiming to specify the key customer-based factors and technologies that influence the value co-creation (VCC) process through artificial intelligence (AI) and automation in the hospitality and tourism industry.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a theory-based general literature review approach to explore key customer-based factors and technologies influencing VCC in the tourism industry. By reviewing the relevant literature, the authors conclude a theoretical framework postulating the determinants of VCC in the AI-driven tourism industry.FindingsThis paper identifies customers' perceptions, attitudes, trust, social influence, hedonic motivations, anthropomorphism and prior experience as customer-based factors to VCC through the use of AI. Service robots, AI-enabled self-service kiosks, chatbots, metaversal tourism and new reality, machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) are technologies that influence VCC.Research l...

Service Business

The Covid-19 pandemic has stimulated the use of social robots in front-office services. However, some initial applications yielded disappointing results, as managers were unaware of the level of development of the robots’ artificial intelligence systems. This study proposes to adapt the Almere model to estimate the technological acceptance of service robots, which express their gender and personality, whilst assisting consumers. A 2 × 2 (two genders vs. two personalities) between-subjects experiment was conducted with 219 participants. Model estimation with Structural Equation Modelling confirmed seven out of eight hypotheses, and all four scenarios were estimated with Ordinary Least Squares, showing that robot gender and personality affected their technological acceptance.

Sustainability, 2020

This research discusses the role of Web 4.0 and 5.0 devices on the commercial sustainability for tourism in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), Vietnam. The study adopts a tourist perspective regarding the future implementation of Web 4.0 and 5.0 devices, focusing on the service quality of various tourism-associated services and assessing, in return, the extent to which the overall satisfaction and long-term patronage of tourists is affected. Usually, researchers conduct this test in various popular establishments where devices are intended for experimental use and tourists are supposed to have previous exposure to them, so that their perceptual thinking regarding the service quality of these devices can be studied. The tourists act as respondents for various establishments. We also asked subjective questions in a short interview to 10 professionals working in these establishments, which helped us in the quantitative survey process. As a mixed method study, it has covered both quantitative and...

Journal of Multidisciplinary Academic Tourism, 2022

This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2021

Abstract This study investigates whether consumers' self-interests and social interactions predict their willingness to share their personal information with a fashion sales robot. The study develops hypotheses based upon the information sharing theory and tests them by building a decision tree predictive model. Using a video stimulus of a fashion sales robot, we conduct interviews, pretests, and main data collection (n = 464) in the United States. The results indicate that service quality, enjoyment, and usefulness, which reflect self-interest, and trust, which reflects social interaction, predict consumers’ willingness to share personal information with the robots. These results suggest that fashion marketers should focus strategically on service quality and enjoyment when they adopt AI sales robots and use them as a medium to share information in customer service.

Marketing Intelligence & Planning

PurposeThis research investigates and conceptualizes non-dyadic human–robot interactions (HRI).Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a netnographic study of the Facebook group called “iRobot – Roomba,” an online brand community dedicated to Roomba vacuums. Their data analysis employed an abductive approach, which extended the grounded theory method.FindingsDyadic portrayals of human–robot interactions can be expanded to consider other actants that are relevant to the consumption experiences of consumer robots. Not only humans but also nonhumans, such as an online brand community, have a meaningful role to play in shaping interactions between humans and robots.Research limitations/implicationsThe present study moves theoretical discussions on HRI from the individual level grounded in a purely psychological approach to a more collective and sociocultural approach.Practical implicationsIf managers do not have a proper assessment of human–robot interactions that considers dif...

Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition), 2020

While cocreation research proliferates, existing studies fail to isolate its manifestation through digital (vs non-digital) platforms. Moreover, extant research predominantly explores the cocreation process (vs its outcome of cocreated value), which therefore merits further scrutiny, particularly in the digital context. Based on these gaps, we explore consumer digital cocreated value (CDCV), which reflects the consumer-perceived value that arises by interacting, collaborating, or communicating with or through digital platforms (touch-points). We classify digital platforms as (1) human-to-human platforms (H2HPs; for example, social media), and (2) human-to-machine platforms (H2MPs), which comprise the sub-types of (a) robotic process automation-based platforms (e.g. call centers) and (b) machine/deep learning-based platforms (e.g. service robots). We next compose a social presence theory-informed framework that explores the effect of perceived platform intimacy and immediacy on CDCV ...

Applied Sciences

The importance of this paper is its discovery of the unused synergetic potential of integration between several AI techniques into an orchestrated effort to improve service. Special emphasis is given to the conversational capabilities of AI systems. The paper shows that the literature related to the use of AI in service is divided into independent knowledge domains (silos) that are either related to the technology under consideration, or to a small group of technologies related to a certain application; it then discusses the reasons for the isolation of these silos, and reveals the barriers and the traps for their integration. Two case studies of service systems are presented to illustrate the importance of synergy. A special focus is given to the conversation part of these service systems: the first case presents an application with high potential for integrating new AI technologies into its AI portfolio, while the second case illustrates the advantages of a mature application that...

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 2021

An increasing number of firms introduce service robots, such as physical robots and virtual chatbots, to provide services to customers. While some firms use robots that resemble human beings by looking and acting humanlike to increase customers’ use intention of this technology, others employ machinelike robots to avoid uncanny valley effects, assuming that very humanlike robots may induce feelings of eeriness. There is no consensus in the service literature regarding whether customers’ anthropomorphism of robots facilitates or constrains their use intention. The present meta-analysis synthesizes data from 11,053 individuals interacting with service robots reported in 108 independent samples. The study synthesizes previous research to clarify this issue and enhance understanding of the construct. We develop a comprehensive model to investigate relationships between anthropomorphism and its antecedents and consequences. Customer traits and predispositions (e.g., computer anxiety), so...

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2023

Robotics significantly influence retail and consumer services. The COVID-19 pandemic further amplified the rise of service robots (SRs) through social distancing measures. While robots are embraced widely by retailers and service providers, consumers’ interaction with SRs remains an intriguing avenue of research across contexts. By taking a relative social power perspective, we report on a series of pre- and intra-COVID-19 studies. Our findings suggest that Gen-Z consumers hold more positive attitudes towards SRs perceived as lower in power vis-à-vis the human user. The longitudinal nature of our study also reveals that while attitudes towards such low-power services turned more negative during the COVID-19 pandemic, attitudes towards SRs that are high in power vis-à-vis the human user remained stable. In practical terms, while Gen-Z consumers hold more positive attitudes towards low-power robots, such service providers also face the challenge of relatively changeable attitudes towards them, especially during crisis times.

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 2021

Purpose This paper aims to analyze if and to what extent mechanical artificial intelligence (AI)-embedded in hotel service robots-influences customers’ evaluation of AI-enabled hotel service interactions. This study deploys online reviews (ORs) analytics to understand if the presence of mechanical AI-related text in ORs influences customers’ OR valence across 19 leading international hotels that have integrated mechanical AI – in the guise of service robots – into their operations. Design/methodology/approach First, the authors identified the 19 leading hotels across three continents that have pioneered the adoption of service robots. Second, by deploying big data techniques, the authors gathered the entire population of ORs hosted on TripAdvisor (almost 50,000 ORs) and generated OR analytics. Subsequently, the authors used ordered logistic regressions analyses to understand if and to what extent AI-enabled hospitality service interactions are evaluated by service customers. Finding...

International Journal of Social Robotics

In recent years, in response to the effects of Covid-19, there has been an increase in the use of social robots in service organisations, as well as in the number of interactions between consumers and robots. However, it is not clear how consumers are valuing these experiences or what the main drivers that shape them are. Furthermore, it is an open research question whether these experiences undergone by consumers can be affected by their own personality. This study attempts to shed some light on these questions and, to do so, an experiment is proposed in which a sample of 378 participants evaluate a simulated front-office service experience delivered by a social robot. The authors investigate the underlying process that explains the experience and find that cognitive-functional factors, emphasising efficiency, have practically the same relevance as emotional factors, emphasising stimulation. In addition, this research identifies the personality traits of the participants and explor...

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

Although robots are increasingly used in service provision, research cautions that consumers are reluctant to accept service robots. Five lab, field, and online studies reveal an important boundary condition to earlier work and demonstrate that consumers perceive robots less negatively when human social presence is the source of discomfort. We show that consumers feel less judged by a robot (vs. a human) when having to engage in an embarrassing service encounter, such as when acquiring medication to treat a sexually transmitted disease or being confronted with one’s own mistakes by a frontline employee. As a consequence, consumers prefer being served by a robot instead of a human when having to acquire an embarrassing product, and a robot helps consumers to overcome their reluctance to accept the service provider’s offering when the situation becomes embarrassing. However, robot anthropomorphism moderates the effect as consumers ascribe a higher automated social presence to a highly...

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 2021

Considering widespread resistance to COVID-19 preventive measures, the authors draw on hypocrisy induction theory to examine whether online chatbots can be used to induce hypocrisy and increase compliance with social distancing guidelines. The experiment demonstrates that when a chatbot induces hypocrisy by reminding participants that they have failed to comply with social distancing recommendations, they feel guilty about violating social norms. To reinstate confidence in their personal standards, they form favorable attitudes toward the chatbot ad and establish intentions to comply with recommendations. Interestingly, the persuasive power of hypocrisy induction differs depending on the level of anthropomorphism of the chatbot. When a humanlike chatbot reminds them of their hypocritical behavior, participants feel higher levels of guilt and act more desirably, but a machinelike chatbot is not effective for creating guilt or generating compliance.

Administrative Sciences

Starting from the observation of a conceptual gap regarding the association between consumption and the contexts in which it occurs, the paper has two objectives. The first is to fill this gap by developing a framework that includes: the identification of consumption contexts based on their building blocks (actors, goods, relationships), the basic classification of their variety, and a knowledge-based reading of consumption contexts capable of explaining their functioning. The second aim is to show that the framework allows the understanding of the digital transformation of consumption contexts. We show that services are produced in two contexts: in the first type, consumers interact directly with goods; in the second, the intermediation of frontline personnel comes into play. Actors and goods present in the consumption contexts are knowledge-holders, and the relationships between them are learning relationships. The shift from traditional consumption contexts to contexts based on a...

Journal of Service Management, 2019

Purpose Technological disruptions such as the Internet of Things and autonomous devices, enhanced analytical capabilities (artificial intelligence) and rich media (virtual and augmented reality) are creating smart environments that are transforming industry structures, processes and practices. The purpose of this paper is to explore critical technological advancements using a value co-creation lens to provide insights into service innovations that impact ecosystems. The paper provides examples from tourism and hospitality industries as an information dependent service management context. Design/methodology/approach The research synthesizes prevailing theories of co-creation, service ecosystems, networks and technology disruption with emerging technological developments. Findings Findings highlight the need for research into service innovations in the tourism and hospitality sector at both macro-market and micro-firm levels, emanating from the rapid and radical nature of technologica...

Psychology & Marketing

The initial hype and fanfare from the Meta Platforms view of how the metaverse could be brought to life has evolved into an ongoing discussion of not only the metaverse’s impact on users and organisations but also the societal and cultural implications of widespread usage. The potential of consumer interaction with brands within the metaverse has engendered significant debate within the marketing-focused discourse on the key challenges and transformative opportunities for marketers. Drawing on insights from expert contributors, this study examines the marketing implications of the hypothetical widespread adoption of the metaverse. We identify new research directions and propose a new framework offering valuable contributions for academia, practice and policy makers. Our future research agenda culminates in a checklist for researchers which clarifies how the metaverse can be beneficial to digital marketing and advertising, branding, services, value creation and consumer wellbeing.

Electronics, 2020

This paper aims to examine attitudes of hospitality and tourism students, as future professionals, towards willingness to implement service robots. The study proposes a new theoretical conceptual model that includes new constructs and items, differentiating it from the others. The model was formed based on the extensive literature review and the interview with an eight-member focus group (hotel managers and academic researchers). Data collection was performed in two stages, pilot research based on 82 respondents and the main study, with the final number of respondents being 236. The initial results of the exploratory factor analysis were further tested using the confirmatory factor analysis. After the exclusion of several items due to low factor loadings and in order to improve model validity, analyses further suggested a nine-dimensional solution with 45 items. The study findings reveal a positive relationship between seven constructs and students’ willingness to implement service ...

Internet Research, 2021

PurposeArtificial intelligence (AI)-based chatbots have brought unprecedented business potential. This study aims to explore consumers' trust and response to a text-based chatbot in e-commerce, involving the moderating effects of task complexity and chatbot identity disclosure.Design/methodology/approachA survey method with 299 useable responses was conducted in this research. This study adopted the ordinary least squares regression to test the hypotheses.FindingsFirst, the consumers' perception of both the empathy and friendliness of the chatbot positively impacts their trust in it. Second, task complexity negatively moderates the relationship between friendliness and consumers' trust. Third, disclosure of the text-based chatbot negatively moderates the relationship between empathy and consumers' trust, while it positively moderates the relationship between friendliness and consumers' trust. Fourth, consumers' trust in the chatbot increases their reliance on...

2019

Service research is a dynamic field, with academics and practitioners alike struggling to understand the realities of a rapidly changing marketplace. As the marketing discipline enters 2019, and the 20th year of the third millennium approaches, the Journal of Services Marketing seeks to be at the forefront of generating current and interesting knowledge that benefits academics, practitioners, communities and, hopefully, mankind. To achieve these lofty goals, we seek to guide service researchers, and other social scientists and practitioners, on exploring areas in which there are plentiful opportunities for theoretical, methodological, practical and societal insights..

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management

PurposeChatbots represent an undeniable player between online retailers and customers as they boost operational efficiency and bring cost savings to businesses while offering convenience for customers in terms of timing and immediacy. However, as chatbots represent a new-born online touchpoint in retailing, especially when it comes to online pre-purchase and purchase experience, this study examines whether and how effort expectation, facilitating condition, performance expectancy, social influence, trust, perceived risk and flow affect consumers' intention to use chatbots for online shopping. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.Design/methodology/approachA total of 226 respondents participated in an online survey. Participants were asked to try a new online service and interact with a chatbot designed using Chatfuel, a platform within the Facebook Messenger setting. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed research model regarding the intention ...

Frontiers in Robotics and AI

In recent years, two fields have become more prominent in our everyday life: smart cities and service robots. In a smart city, information is collected from distributed sensors around the city into centralised data hubs and used to improve the efficiency of the city systems and provide better services to citizens. Exploiting major advances in Computer Vision and Machine Learning, service robots have evolved from performing simple tasks to playing the role of hotel concierges, museum guides, waiters in cafes and restaurants, home assistants, automated delivery drones, and more. As digital agents, robots can be prime members of the smart city vision. On the one hand, smart city data can be accessed by robots to gain information that is relevant to the task in hand. On the other hand, robots can act as mobile sensors and actuators on behalf of the smart city, thus contributing to the data acquisition process. However, the connection between service robots and smart cities is surprising...

Journal of Business Research, 2020

This article synthesizes research on luxury and multi-actor interactions in non-luxury contexts to explore how luxury brands can adopt digitally enabled multi-actor service encounters. The literature is further supplemented by interviews with managers in luxury firms. Our findings caution against simply adopting approaches from non-luxury contexts as they risk undermining the luxury service experience. Rather, we develop a set of propositions at the intersections of the physical, digital, and social realms on how luxury brands can adapt the use of digital multi-actor interactions to augment rather than imperil their brand image. Specifically, our propositions help luxury managers to enhance the customer experience through hedonic escapism, strengthen their brand communities, and use digitization to simultaneously provide conspicuous customers with greater visibility and discreet customers with social exclusivity.

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

Purpose When service failure occurs, it leads to dissatisfaction, lack of trust and avoidance behaviour among customers, and it can also be seen as a threat to the survival of the business. This paper aims to investigate the current and potential dynamics of service failure research within the tourism and hospitality area. Design/methodology/approach By adopting qualitative, quantitative (citation and text mining) and science-mapping tools (descriptive, conceptual and intellectual), this study analyses 99 key papers on service failure in 18 major hospitality and tourism journals over a 20-year span. Findings The research on service recovery strategies, recovery efforts, pre- and post-failure and post-recovery in the service encounter and the impacts of justice on post-recovery and post-complaint behaviour are identified as the major streams of service failure research. While emotional labour, rumination and satisfaction recovery were identified as emerging themes, service failure pe...

International Journal of Bank Marketing, 2023

Purpose-Using retail banking as a setting and focusing specifically on elderly customers (i.e. individuals aged 60 or more), this study aims to deepen the current understanding of how the physical context and the need for human interaction influence elderly customers' attitudes toward self-service technologies (SSTs) and their behavior. Design/methodology/approach-Using face-to-face questionnaires, a sample of 505 elderly bank customers was collected. Data were analyzed using a multi-method approach, combining a moderated mediation analysis with a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. Findings-The findings suggest that a pleasant retail space may result in a positive attitude toward SSTs, which increases their co-creation intention. It also highlights that need for interaction of elderly customers with employees has detrimental effects on their attitude toward SSTs. Research limitations/implications-The current analysis was carried out among Italian elderly banks' customers. Thus, the results are highly dependent on the context of the analysis. In addition, it does not consider the different degrees of knowledge and experience the elderly may have with technology. Practical implications-This study suggests that providing access and support for using technology may be essential for banks to facilitate SSTs adoption in elderly customers. Originality/value-To the best of the authors' knowledge, this study represents the first attempt to examine the influence of the physical context on elderly customers' attitudes toward SSTs and their consequent behavioral intentions. Furthermore, it highlights the importance of the human touch for these particular customers.

Informatics

This exploratory study examines the effectiveness of social robots’ ability to deliver advertising messages using different “appeals” in a business environment. Specifically, it explores the use of three types of message appeals in a human-robot interaction scenario: guilt, humour and non-emotional. The study extends past research in advertising by exploring whether messages communicated by social robots can impact consumers’ behaviour. Using an experimental research design, the emotional-themed messages focus on the health-related properties of two fictitious energy drink brands. The findings show mixed results for humour and guilt messages. When the robot delivered a promotion message using humour, participants perceived it as being less manipulative. Participants who were exposed to humourous messages also demonstrated a significantly greater intent for future purchase decisions. However, guilt messages were more likely to persuade consumers to change their brand selection. This ...

Review of Managerial Science

The tourism sector has been one of the most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to restrictions on mobility and fear of social contact. In this context, business innovation through digital transformation is presented as a great opportunity for the tourism industry and the inclusion of social robots in service tasks is an example. This transformation requires new methodologies, skills and talent that must be promoted to improve the innovative tourism ecosystem. With this research, we try to determine how the inclusion of social or service robots in hotels can improve the image and perception held by clients or guests. For that, we first analyse the degree of knowledge and sentiment generated by social robots through a social listening study in social networks. In addition, we determine whether these perceptions on the subject are in tune with other more formal fields, such as scientific research, or with the strategies followed at a national or international level by companies, ag...

International Journal of Social Robotics

A promising application of social robots highlighted by the ongoing labor shortage is to deploy them as service robots at organizational frontlines. As the face of the firms, service robots are expected to provide cognitive and affective supports in response to customer inquiries. However, one question remains unanswered: Would having a robot with a high level of affective support be helpful when such a robot cannot provide a satisfactory level of cognitive support to users? In this study, we aim to address this question by showing that empathetic service robots can be beneficial, although the extent of such benefits depends on the quality of services they provide. Our in-person human–robot interaction study (n = 55) shows that when a service robot can only provide a partial solution, it is preferable for it to express more empathetic behaviors, as users will perceive it to be more useful and will have a better customer experience. However, when a service robot is able to provide a ...

Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Recent investments in automation and AI are reshaping the hospitality sector. Driven by social and economic forces affecting service delivery, these new technologies have transformed the labor that acts as the backbone to the industry-namely frontline service work performed by housekeepers, front desk staff, line cooks and others. We describe the context for recent technological adoption, with particular emphasis on algorithmic management applications. Through this work, we identify gaps in existing literature and highlight areas in need of further research in the domains of worker-centered technology development. Our analysis highlights how technologies such as algorithmic management shape roles and tasks in the high-touch service sector. We outline how harms produced through automation are often due to a lack of attention to non-management stakeholders. We then describe an opportunity space for researchers and practitioners to elicit worker participation at all stages of technolog...

Service Business

This paper investigates tourists' preferences toward the humans-robots ratio in the service delivery systems of tourism and hospitality companies and the factors that shape them. The sample includes 1537 respondents from nearly 100 countries. The findings show that a higher preferred share of robots is positively associated with the perceived emotional skills of robots, their perceived usefulness in the tourism/ hospitality context, perceived robotic service expectations, attitudes towards robots in general, and the male gender. On the other side, it is negatively associated with the perceived disadvantages of robots compared to human servers and the household size of respondents.

Tourism Economics, 2019

The technological advances in artificial intelligence and robotics allow the massive introduction of service robots by travel, tourism and hospitality companies. While research on service robots in tourism is gaining momentum, the economic aspects of robots’ adoption have been quite neglected. This article critically evaluates the current research on the economic aspects of service robots in tourism and the implications of robots for tourism economics as a field of research in three domains: tourism supply, tourism demand and destination management. In that way, the article delves into the economics of service robots from the perspectives of the tourism companies, the tourists and the destinations as a whole. On the basis of this discussion, the article identifies various research directions and develops specific research questions related to the adoption of robots in tourism that need to be answered by future research in tourism economics.

Journal of Service Management, 2022

PurposeAlthough consumers feel that the move toward service robots in the frontline so far was driven by firms' strive to replace human service agents and realize cost savings accordingly, the COVID-19 pandemic has led customers to appreciate frontline robots' ability to provide services in ways that keep them safe and protected from the virus. Still, research on this topic is scant. This article offers guidance by providing a theoretical backdrop for the safety perspective on service robots, as well as outlining a typology that researchers and practitioners can use to further advance this field.Design/methodology/approachA typology is developed based on a combination of a theory- and practice-driven approach. Departing from the type of behavior performed by the service robot, the typology synthesizes three different service robot roles from past literature and proposes three new safety-related role extensions. These safety-related roles are derived from a search for example...

International Hospitality Review

PurposeThe aim of this study is to examine the existing literature on service robots in order to identify prominent themes, assess the present state of service robotics research and highlight the contributions of seminal publications in the business, management and hospitality domain.Design/methodology/approachThis study analysed 332 Scopus papers from 1985 to 2022 using bibliometric techniques like citation and co-citation analysis.FindingsThe study findings highlighted that there has been a consistent rise in publications related to service robots. The paper identifies three significant themes in the service robot literature: adoption of service robots in the context of customer service, anthropomorphism and integration of artificial intelligence in robotic service. Furthermore, this study highlights prominent authors, journals, institutions and countries associated with research on service robots and discusses the future research opportunities in this domain.Originality/valueThis...

International Journal of Social Robotics

Taking advice from others requires confidence in their competence. This is important for interaction with peers, but also for collaboration with social robots and artificial agents. Nonetheless, we do not always have access to information about others’ competence or performance. In these uncertain environments, do our prior beliefs about the nature and the competence of our interacting partners modulate our willingness to rely on their judgments? In a joint perceptual decision making task, participants made perceptual judgments and observed the simulated estimates of either a human participant, a social humanoid robot or a computer. Then they could modify their estimates based on this feedback. Results show participants’ belief about the nature of their partner biased their compliance with its judgments: participants were more influenced by the social robot than human and computer partners. This difference emerged strongly at the very beginning of the task and decreased with repeate...

Tourism Management, 2021

The accelerated deployment of humanoid robots in hospitality services precipitates the need to understand related consumer reactions. Four scenario-based experiments, building on social presence and social cognition theories, examine how humanoid robots (vs. self-service machines) shape consumer service perceptions and intentions vis-à-vis concurrent presence/absence of human staff. The influence of consumers' need for human interaction and technology readiness is also examined. We find that anthropomorphizing service robots positively affects expected service quality, first-visit intention, and willingness to pay, as well as increasing warmth/competence inferences. These effects, however, are contingent on the absence of human frontline staff, which can be understood by viewing anthropomorphism as a relative concept. Humanoid robots also increase psychological risk, but this poses no threat to expected service quality when consumers' need for human interaction is controlled for. Hence, humanoid robots can be a differentiating factor if higher service quality expectations are satisfied. Additionally, we show that a humanoid robot's effect on expected service quality is positive for all but low levels of technology readiness. Further implications for theory/practice are discussed.

NIM Marketing Intelligence Review

The service revolution has started Our economies seem to be facing a turning point in the service sector. Technologies are rapidly becoming smarter and more powerful, and at the same time, they are getting smaller, lighter and cheaper. These include hardware, such as physical robots, drones and wearable technologies, and code and software such as for analytics, speech processing, image processing, virtual and augmented reality, cloud technologies, mobile technologies, geotagging, robotic process automation (RPA), low-code platforms and machine learning. Together, these technologies will transform virtually all service sectors. Combined with these technologies, service robots and artificial intelligence (AI) will lead to rapid innovation that can dramatically improve the customer experience, service quality and productivity all at the same time. The incremental costs of robots are close to zero Robot-and AI-delivered service offers unprecedented economies of scale and scope, as the bulk of the costs are incurred in their development. Physical robots cost a fraction of adding headcount, and virtual robots scale at close to zero incremental costs. Such dramatic scalability applies to chatbots and "visible" robots such as holograms. For example, an airport could install a hologram-based humanoid service robot every 50 meters to assist passengers and deal with common questions like arrival information and directions to check-in counters in all common languages. These holograms only require low-cost hardware like a camera, microphone, speaker and projector and do not need to take up floor space: Travelers could even push their baggage carts through a hologram when it gets crowded. Different qualities of service robots and human frontline employees As the relative strengths of humans and robotic services differ, they are best deployed in different contexts (see Figure 1). It is difficult for robots to deal with

Australasian Marketing Journal, 2020

Artificial intelligence (AI) in the context of customer service, we define as a technology-enabled system for evaluating real-time service scenarios using data collected from digital and/or physical sources in order to provide personalised recommendations, alternatives, and solutions to customers’ enquiries or problems, even very complex ones. We examined, in a banking services context, whether consumers preferred AI or Human online customer service applications using an experimental design across three field-based experiments. The results show that, in the case of low-complexity tasks, consumers considered the problem-solving ability of AI to be greater than that of human customer service and were more likely to use AI while, conversely, for high-complexity tasks, they viewed human customer service as superior and were more likely to use it than AI. Moreover, we found that perceived problem-solving ability mediated the effects of customers’ service usage intentions (i.e., their pre...

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 2020

Purpose Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, service organizations rushed to deploy robots to serve people in quarantine, again igniting the ongoing dispute regarding robots in tourism. This study aims to investigate tourists’ perceptions regarding the use of robots and, more specifically, anthropomorphic robots in the tourism domain. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative inquiry was used to delve deep into the issue of tourists’ perceptions regarding the usage of anthropomorphic robots in tourism, with a total number of 78 interviews with tourists being retained in the study. Findings The findings reveal that tourists favor the use of anthropomorphic robots over any other type of robot. The use of anthropomorphic robots in tourism may result in an overall enhanced experiential value. Even so, informants also expressed frustration, sadness and disappointment vis-à-vis the use of robots in a human-driven industry. Research limitations/implications A conceptual continuum of tourists’ per...

International Journal of Social Robotics

The outbreak of Covid-19 precipitated the use of service robots in customer-facing services as a replacement for employees to avoid human-to-human contact. However, this development has not resolved the debate as to whether robots should be characterized with gender attributes or simply be genderless. This study explores whether endowing a robot with gender attributes makes it more acceptable as a service provider among stated men and women. To this end, an experiment was conducted at a public fair in which a gendered robot simulated the provision of a service to customers, which consisted of offering them advice, hints, and messages of encouragement to help complete a eudaemonic puzzle. A parsimonious version of the Almere model was used to estimate acceptance of the technology. The findings reveal that for both stated men and women, the main drivers for accepting the female-coded robot are perceived usefulness and social influence, although women attach greater importance to socia...

Journal of Law and Sustainable Development

Purpose: This study examines the process formation of customer loyalty and customer value co-creation towards AI chatbots by exploring the successive effects of perceived value aspects, perceived information quality, technological self-efficacy for online trust, aspects of loyalty, and value co-creation. Theorical framework: The increasingly strong reception of humans for a new wave of digitalization has promoted the need to learn about customer loyalty and customers' value co-creation formation for businesses applying AI chatbots to their operations business to attract and retain customers. The study utilized the perceived value dimension, as well as perceived information quality, technological self-efficacy, and online trust, to comprehend loyalty and value co-creation. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire survey with 447 participants, who had used Pizza Hut's AI chatbot service in Vietnam. The data was analyzed b...

Electronic Markets

Firms use robots to deliver an ever-expanding range of services. However, as service failures are common, service recovery actions are necessary to prevent user churn. This research further suggests that firms need to know how to design service robots that avoid alienating users in case of service failures. Robust evidence across two experiments demonstrates that users attribute successful service outcomes internally, while robot-induced service failures are blamed on the firm (and not the robot), confirming the well-known self-serving bias. While this external attributional shift occurs regardless of the robot design (i.e., it is the same for warm vs. competent robots), the findings imply that service recovery minimizes the undesirable external shift and that this effect is particularly pronounced for warm robots. For practitioners, this implies prioritizing service robots with a warm design for maximizing user retention for either type of service outcome (i.e., success, failure, a...

Service Business

This study examines the willingness of customers to accept, and their intention to recommend, the services provided by service robots in restaurants. A mixed-methods research approach was taken to evaluate a theoretical model based on behavioural reasoning theory (BRT). The results demonstrated the important influence of positive attitudes and objections to the use of service robots on consumers’ willingness to use service robots, as well as their intention to recommend restaurants that use them. Among the main aspects that affect attitudes and objections, we found hedonic perceptions, perceived safety, interaction quality perception and anthropomorphism.

Social Science Research Network, 2020

Purpose-Robots are predicted to have a profound impact on the service sector. The emergence of robots has attracted increasing interest from business scholars and practitioners alike. In this article, we undertake a systematic review of the business literature about the impact of service robots on customers and employees with the objective of guiding future research. Design/methodology/approach-We analyzed the literature on service robots as they relate to customers and employees in business journals listed in the Financial Times top 50 journals plus all journals covered in the cross-disciplinary SERVSIG literature alerts. Findings-The analysis of the identified studies yielded multiple observations about the impact of service robots on customers (e.g. overarching frameworks on acceptance and usage of service robots; characteristics of service robots and anthropomorphism; and potential for enhanced and deteriorated service experiences) and service employees (e.g. employee benefits such as reduced routine work, enhanced productivity and job satisfaction; potential negative consequences such as loss of autonomy and a range of negative psychological outcomes; opportunities for human-robot collaboration; job insecurity; and robot-related up-skilling and development requirements). We also conclude that current research on service robots is fragmented, is largely conceptual in nature and focused on the initial adoption stage. We feel that more research is needed to build an overarching theory. In addition, more empirical research is needed, especially on the long(er)-term usage service robots on actual behaviors, the well-being and potential downsides and (ethical) risks for customers and service employees.

Sustainability, 2023

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY

Journal of Services Marketing, 2021

Purpose-This paper aims to identify future research opportunities that address human-technology service interactions. Design/methodology/approach-This editorial is based on the author's personal reflections and conceptualizations of ideas from past previous research and theory. Findings-The authors identify three opportunities for further research on technology and humanity: service technology and social interaction and service technology and societal prosperity. Research limitations/implications-Service researchers need to realize that topics such as technology, robots, artificial intelligence are not mutually exclusive from topics that seek to improve the human condition, such as transformative service research. We encourage service researchers to explore how digital technologies in service domains impacts consumers, communities, and even, global humanity. Practical implications-Researchers have guidance on areas in which pioneering theoretical and methodological opportunities abound. Originality/value-This editorial offers new perspectives on technology and humanity considering the effect of the global pandemic.

Revista Contemporânea

O abandono escolar no ensino médio é um problema global que pode ter graves consequências para a vida do jovem, como a falta de perspectivas profissionais e aumento da vulnerabilidade social. A aplicação de ferramentas de Inteligência Artificial pode ser uma solução para identificar alunos em risco de evasão escolar, permitindo que a escola possa intervir precocemente e desenvolver estratégias de marketing mais eficientes para reduzir a evasão escolar. Marketing educacional é uma estratégia de marketing específica para instituições de ensino e programas educacionais. Ele se concentra em atrair e reter alunos, aumentar a conscientização sobre a instituição de ensino e melhorar a reputação da marca educacional. Diferentemente do marketing tradicional, o marketing educacional requer uma compreensão aprofundada das necessidades e desejos dos alunos em potencial, bem como das tendências do mercado educacional. No entanto, é necessário considerar investimentos em tecnologia, capacitação d...

Electronic Markets

Chatbots as prominent form of conversational agents are increasingly implemented as a user interface for digital customer-firm interactions on digital platforms and electronic markets, but they often fail to deliver suitable responses to user requests. In turn, individuals are left dissatisfied and turn away from chatbots, which harms successful chatbot implementation and ultimately firm’s service performance. Based on the stereotype content model, this paper explores the impact of two universally usable failure recovery messages as a strategy to preserve users’ post-recovery satisfaction and chatbot re-use intentions. Results of three experiments show that chatbot recovery messages have a positive effect on recovery responses, mediated by different elicited social cognitions. In particular, a solution-oriented message elicits stronger competence evaluations, whereas an empathy-seeking message leads to stronger warmth evaluations. The preference for one of these message types over t...

Electronic Markets, 2021

Thanks to artificial intelligence, chatbots have been applied to many consumer-facing applications, especially to online travel agencies (OTAs). This study aims to identify five quality dimensions of chatbot services and investigate their effect on user confirmation, which in turn leads to use continuance. In addition, the moderating role of technology anxiety in the relationships between chatbot quality dimensions and post-use confirmation is examined. Survey data were gathered from 295 users of Chinese OTAs. Partial Least Square (PLS) was used to analyze measurement and structural models. Understandability, reliability, assurance, and interactivity are positively associated with post-use confirmation and technology anxiety moderates the relationships between four chatbot quality dimensions and confirmation. Confirmation is positively associated with satisfaction, which in turn influences use continuance intention. This study examines how chatbot services in OTAs are considered by users (human-like agents vs. technology-enabled services) by investigating the moderating role of technology anxiety.

Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research

This study empirically and comprehensively explores consumers’ ethical perceptions of autonomous service robots (ASRs) in hotels. Under the triangulation approach, this study has identified eight themes of consumer perceived ethical issues (privacy, security, safety, transparency, fairness, socialization, autonomy, and responsibility). Each theme can be explained from two dimensions: ethical issues arise during the interaction (i.e., ubiquitous surveillance, excessive data, unidentified risks, service disclosure, inaccessibility, dehumanization, selection of services, and service recovery), and ethical issues can be raised by the characteristics of ASRs (i.e., privacy infringement, malicious use, malfunctions, untrustworthiness, biased features, job replacement, inflexibility, and self-identified solutions). This study is the first to propose ethical issues of ASRs from two dimensions with different intelligence levels, and to highlight ethical issues during hotel service interactio...

Electronic Commerce Research

Stationary retailers may introduce new technologies, such as augmented reality, to provide product information and recommendations and thus improve shopping experience. Examples of such augmented reality applications are magic mirrors that enable virtual try-on and may induce cross-buying intention. Based on an experimental scenario and the corresponding results from 301 questionnaires, we find that magic mirrors positively impact consumers’ cross-buying intention. Cross-buying behavior depends particularly on price attractiveness and the aesthetic appeal of the products. Further, men place less emphasis on price attractiveness when considering cross-buying options than women. Whereas magic mirrors reduce the relationship between perceived product benefits and cross-buying behavior, the technology increases the positive effect of perceived convenience on consumers’ buying behavior. Magic mirrors, thus, improve convenience but hinder the perception of product benefits – these are bet...

Journal of Information Technology in Construction, 2023

This study explores and presents the roadmap of industry 4.0 for the Indian construction industry with particular reference to project management practices. Accordingly, this study explores stakeholder dynamics for adopting digital technologies in the construction sector, especially those affecting construction project management. The study adopted one focus group with five participating panellists that provided the qualitative data. This is followed by a questionnaire survey with wider practitioners from the public and private sectors to validate the findings and rank the hypothesis to enable the implementation. Based on a focus group, this study proposes thirteen hypotheses describing stakeholders' dynamics. Furthermore, based on the questionnaire survey validation, this study finds that the top four strategies are stakeholder integration, process re-engineering, training activities, and the need to generate federated data. We interpret the journey of industry 4.0 in the construction industry as having its effect from at least four perception frames: redundancy, accommodation, amplification, and introduction. Practitioners can make process changes in their organisations while delivering projects using industry 4.0 in the construction sector. The findings are contextual to the Indian construction industry. While there is a richness of data that emanated from experienced practitioners, future case studies could enhance the applicability of the findings. The article takes a visionary stand to enable practical aspects of adopting industry 4.0 in its full measure.

IEEE Access

Voice Activated Personal Assistants (VAPA) are unique and different from other Information Systems (IS) due to their personalized, intelligent, and human-like behavior. Given the unique characteristics of these VAPA's, current technology adoption models are not comprehensive enough for explaining the usage of these systems. While trust and privacy have been identified as relevant issues affecting adoption of VAPA's, both these have been treated in a simplistic fashion that is not effective keeping in mind the complex nature of these factors. Moreover, being ''always on'', VAPA's are intrusive by nature: another aspect that current research has overlooked. Drawing on current findings in IS and artificial intelligence, we propose two different types of trust (cognitive and emotional) together with their antecedents (anthropomorphism, intelligence, VAPA privacy concern, household privacy concern, vendor & third-party privacy concern, and government privacy concern). The moderation effect of perceived intrusiveness on usage behavior is also examined. The proposed research model is empirically validated with data obtained from 466 VAPA users in India using a Structure Equation Modelling approach. We observe that perceived anthropomorphism does not affect emotional trust, whereas the effect of perceived intelligence on cognitive trust is significant. Social privacy concerns like VAPA and household privacy affect both forms of trust, whereas the effect of institutional privacy category is weak with only vendor & third-party privacy concern affecting emotional trust. Additionally, the findings establish the moderating role of perceived intrusiveness in dampening and negatively influencing the usage of VAPA's, with a stronger effect for large households.

Journal of Service Research, 2020

This article develops a strategic framework for using artificial intelligence (AI) to engage customers for different service benefits. This framework lays out guidelines of how to use different AIs to engage customers based on considerations of nature of service task, service offering, service strategy, and service process. AI develops from mechanical, to thinking, and to feeling. As AI advances to a higher intelligence level, more human service employees and human intelligence (HI) at the intelligence levels lower than that level should be used less. Thus, at the current level of AI development, mechanical service should be performed mostly by mechanical AI, thinking service by both thinking AI and HI, and feeling service mostly by HI. Mechanical AI should be used for standardization when service is routine and transactional, for cost leadership, and mostly at the service delivery stage. Thinking AI should be used for personalization when service is data-rich and utilitarian, for quality leadership, and mostly at the service creation stage. Feeling AI should be used for relationalization when service is relational and high touch, for relationship leadership, and mostly at the service interaction stage. We illustrate various AI applications for the three major AI benefits, providing managerial guidelines for service providers to leverage the advantages of AI as well as future research implications for service researchers to investigate AI in service from modeling, consumer, and policy perspectives.

Journal of Service Management

PurposeThe authors systematically review empirical dyadic service encounter research published in top-tier journals between 1972 and 2022.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employed bibliometric techniques, co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling analysis to map schools of thought and research frontiers within the dyadic service encounter literature. In total, the authors analyzed 155 articles. To ensure inclusion of high-quality research, the authors screened articles from 139 journals with “4” or “4*” ratings on the 2021 Chartered Association of Business Schools (ABS) journal list, in addition to articles published in three service sector-specific journals: Journal of Service Management, Journal of Services Marketing and Journal of Service Theory and Practice.FindingsThe authors' co-citation analysis identified four distinct clusters within the dyadic service encounter literature: (1) shaping and explaining service encounters; (2) emotions in service work; (3) mode...

Information Technology & People, 2022

PurposeThe use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the workplace is on the rise. To help advance research in this area, the authors synthesise the academic research and develop research propositions on the antecedents and consequences of AI adoption and application in the workplace to guide future research. The authors also present AI research in the socio-technical system context to provide a springboard for new research to fill the knowledge gap of the adoption and application of AI in the workplace.Design/methodology/approachThis paper summarises the existing literature and builds a theoretically grounded conceptual framework on the socio-technical system theory that captures the essence of the impact of AI in the workplace.FindingsThe antecedents of AI adoption and application include personnel subsystem, technical subsystem, organisational structure subsystem and environmental factors. The consequences of AI adoption and application include individual, organisational and employm...

Journal of Multidisciplinary Academic Tourism

This is a conceptual review paper explains and discusses the role and potential of service robots in tourism and hospitality from the perspective of consumer behavior. The adoption and use of robots have increased rapidly in tourism and hospitality over the past few years due to a number of reasons. With the developments in digital technology and artificial intelligence, the use of robots has become cheaper and easier for businesses in various industries including tourism. Moreover, the developments such as the Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of robots in tourism and hospitality where interaction with the customer is frequent and intense. In line with the growth of the adoption and the use of service robots in the industry, there is a growing body of research in the field. The future potential of service robots and their adoption by businesses depend very much on a better understanding of service robots. This review study explores attitudes and expectations of consumers r...

Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence

A successful implementation of artificial intelligence and robots in the service industry requires the acceptance and trust of consumers. In order to be able to provide similar services as human employees, AI devices and robots have to have the ability to interact and relate to the human consumer and, at the same time, to provide the expected information. Researches in the field of consumer services have shown that empathy and emotions can improve the relation between service employees and consumers, by providing more enjoyable interactions and a better exchange of information. In our research we investigate if the attachment between the consumer and AI devices can facilitate a higher quality of information exchange, a better and more pleasant interaction and if it determines a higher self-disclosing behavior from the consumer. Our results confirm that attachment has a positive impact on consumer-AI interactions, improving the perceived enjoyment of the conversation, a better qualit...

Proceedings of the ... International Conference on Business Excellence, 2022

In the past years artificial intelligence (AI) has become an important subject for both companies and consumer due to the growth of personal AI assistants and external service robots. It is clear that many aspects of our life are not like they used to be. The fact that every one of us is sooner or later going to incorporate various AI functions in daily routine activities becomes somehow certain. It is not only our home-life that is transforming, but also the way we, as consumers, are going to interact with different product and service providers. In this paper we provide a comparative literature review on the challenges and research topics regarding personal AI assistants and external service robots. While the personal AI assistants intervene more in the private sphere of the consumer, the relation to the external service robots is more distant. The results of our literature review show that the relation between consumer and external service robot is more characterized by interaction, enjoyment and engagement, it is expected to have a parasocial friendship relation between consumer and personal AI assistants. Taking this difference of perspective the two types of AI will be differently involved in the future business and marketing activities of companies.