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Use of service robots in hospitality: An observational study in terms of technology acceptance model
Abstract
This study aims to explore hospitality customers' behavioral intentions and reactions toward service robots from the perspective of the Technology Acceptance Model. Kastamonu University Scientific Research Projects Coordination Department has supported this research. In this context, the service robot was leased. The service robot has been shown to customers in the lobbies, restaurants, rest areas, and cafes of accommodation establishments. Customers were enabled to interact with the robot. The participant observation method was adopted in the study. Unstructured interviews were conducted. The data divided into categories from the perspective of the Technology Acceptance Model were processed using the MAXQDA analysis tool. The density map was drawn from the "Document Portfolio." The data were obtained as a result of participant observation. It is divided into two categories. These; are "Behavioral Responses" and "Cognitive and Emotional Responses." The most prominent themes within the categories are video/photo taking, speaking, touching (behavioral), excitement, liking, and having fun (cognitive and emotional). The user rate of these reactions is 7/10 on average. It was observed that the participants enjoyed, were satisfied, and wanted to interact with the service robot. These findings reveal that behavioral intentions related to technology acceptance may occur against service robots.
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This chapter illustrates a qualitative project aimed at understanding the similarities and disparities that occur when students’ and teachers’ conceptions of assessment are compared. We used a multiple-case study design, with five third grade teachers and their students. The data were gathered through both single-person (with teachers) and focus group (with students) interviews. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a detailed description of how the visual tools of MAXQDA were used to compare how elementary Portuguese teachers and students conceive mathematics assessment. We present this case illustration in four sections. The first section contains the background, objectives, and guiding methodology of the project. The second section describes the preparation of the data and the development of the coding system by using both concept-driven and data-driven categories. In the third section, we explain how we compared and contrasted all summarized data in terms of categories by using the MAXQDA visual tools: Document Portrait, Code Matrix Browser, and Code Relations Browser. The final section describes how we used the Summary Grid and the Summary Tables to organize our findings and draw our conclusions. We conclude with a review of the pros and cons of alternative ways of comparing single-person and focus group interviews using MAXQDA.
Information and communications technologies promote change in the service sector, and the banking sector is not an exception. Finding what factors impact consumer satisfaction with service and lead to loyalty is invariably important for business. However, it is important to begin with evaluating the aspects that are specific to the market and service. The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting customer loyalty in Mobile Banking. Following the model designed by the researchers, consideration was given to mediator variables of satisfaction, trust, and customer service to examine how factors such as perceived risk, relative advantages, and usability affect customer loyalty. In this study, customers of an Iranian bank (Shahr Bank) based in the city of Tehran constituted the statistical population. The descriptive survey method was used on a sample that was selected through a cluster-convenience method and included 411 Shahr Bank's customers resident in the east, west, north, south, and centre of the city of Tehran. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) test and the LISREL 8.8 software were used to analyse the data and to determine what role each factor plays on loyalty. The results showed that such factors as relative advantages, satisfaction, and trust have the most significant impact on customer loyalty. However, the effect of usability on customer service was not confirmed. Furthermore, it was identified that perceived risk has a negative impact on loyalty.
The use of social robots in service scenarios (e.g. in hotels) is expected to increase. Research has indicated that realistic threat and identity threat contribute to prejudice, discrimination, and conflict. Therefore, designing smart robots that can understand user needs and provide prompt service is critical. This study aimed to explore the relationships among perceived threat, negative attitudes toward robots, and usage intention, and to discuss how anthropomorphism moderates the relationship between negative attitudes and usage intention toward robots. We hypothesized that realistic threat and identity threat positively influence negative attitudes toward social robots; such negative attitudes have negative effects on usage intention; and anthropomorphism positively moderates said effect. A between-subjects factorial research design was employed; participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions of robot anthropomorphic appearance. The stimuli were two pictures of service robots—one with a humanoid appearance and one without. After viewing one of the stimuli, participants filled in a questionnaire that assessed the realistic threat, identity threat, negative attitudes, and usage intention. When participants perceived the robot’s appearance to be highly anthropomorphic, their negative attitudes toward it had a stronger negative effect on their usage intention than when they considered the appearance less anthropomorphic. Both identity threat and realistic threat significantly increased negative attitudes toward the robots; thus, the public’s willingness to use these robots would be negatively affected. This study recommends that robotics companies consider how to decrease people’s perceived realistic and identity threats as well as adjust robots’ anthropomorphic appearance to people’s tastes.
This paper presents the results of a user acceptance survey (based on the Technology Acceptance Model-TAM) of the humanoid social robot Pepper as a communication channel in different information retrieval scenarios in a business context. In total, 239 passers-by participated in the survey, which had a specific focus on the impact of perceived safety and security aspects. The results revealed a positive assessment of its perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. It also showed how safety, data protection, and privacy concerns impact the intention to use the robot. The study findings are supported by the outcomes of eight expert interviews.
The growing implementation of robotics in hospitality and tourism requires broader research into customers' experience with service robots. This study explores human-robot interaction (HRI) in the context of tourists interacting with hotel service robots. The data, 7994 online TripAdvisor reviews of 74 hotels, were subjected to a content analysis based on the Service Robot Acceptance Model (sRAM) and its dimensions (functional, social-emotional and relational). A sentiment analysis was also carried out. The results identify the principal dimensions and variables involved in HRI and the feelings robots inspire in different types of travellers. Guests most often comment on the functional dimension. Robots' functions determine this experience and influence the interaction between robots and hotel guests.
Adopting a supply-side perspective, the paper analyses Bulgarian hotel managers' perceptions of service robots using a convergent mixed methods design. Struc-tured quantitative data were collected from 79 managers using a questionnaire, while interviews were used for the collection of qualitative data from 20 managers. The findings indicate respondents feel that repetitive, dirty, dull, and dangerous tasks in hotels would be more appropriate for robots, while hotel managers would rather use employees for tasks that require social skills and emotional intelligence. The individual characteristics of respondents and the organisational characteristics of the hotels they currently worked in played little role in their perceptions of service robots. The managers considered that robots would decrease the quality of the service and were generally not ready to use robots. Additionally, the interviewees indicated that skilled and well-trained employees were more valuable and more adequate than robots for the hospitality and tourism industry. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided as well.
This paper investigates how service failures affect customers by comparing human-robot interactions with human-human interactions. More specifically, it compares customers’ satisfaction in a service robot interaction depending on a service failure with the customers’ satisfaction in a frontline service employee interaction. On a theoretical basis, extant literature on the uncanny valley paradigm proposed that service robots would create lower satisfaction than human frontline employees would. However, I find that service robots could keep up with human frontline employees.
Based on an extensive literature research on service failures, I propose that customer satisfaction after a service failure declines far less for a human frontline employee compared with a service robot. Nevertheless, I find evidence that service robots create even higher customer satisfaction than human frontline employees after the exactly similar service failure. I base my findings on an experimental laboratory study with 120 student participants and the service robot “Pepper” from Softbank Corp.
Robots are increasingly discussed in academic literature as well as public discourse because of their introduction into consumers' lives. Th e increased usage of robots in industry will meet with resistance from customers in the service industry as well as employees in industry, as their capabilities increase and they are used to augment or replace human labour. Th is article explores data gathered from a 2017 survey of 393 Iranian consumers to determine how Iranians perceive the use of robots in hotels, indicating which tasks Iranian consumers find robots can do for them and those that they want humans to continue doing. The findings reveal that Iranian consumers' attitudes towards having services performed for them by robots is largely driven by general attitudes towards robots, a recognition of the advantages of robots compared to humans, experience with robots, and the social skills of robots. It is noteworthy that no demographic variables explored seem to play a role in shaping attitudes towards service in hotels by robots.
This paper explores the current state and the potential adoption of service automation and robots by tourist, travel and hospitality companies. Despite the huge advancements in social robotics, the research on robots in tourism has been extremely limited-a gap that is partially filled by this paper. Specifically the paper looks at service automation in hotels, restaurants, events, theme and amusement parks, airports, car rental companies, travel agencies and tourist information centres, museums and art galleries. The paper elaborates on the challenges that companies will face when adopting service automation and robots to serve tourists.
Travel, tourism and hospitality companies have started to adopt robots, artificial intelligence and service automation (RAISA) in the form of chatbots, delivery robots, robot-concierge, conveyor restaurants, self-service information/check-in/check-out kiosks, and many others. Despite the huge advancements in social robotics, the research on robots in tourism has been extremely limited – a gap that is partially filled by this paper. It investigates the costs and benefits of the adoption of RAISA by travel, tourism, and hospitality companies (hotels, restaurants, event organisers, theme and amusement parks, airports, car rental companies, travel agencies and tourist information centres, museums and art galleries and others). Specifically the paper looks at how RAISA influence the competitiveness, service quality, human resource management, service operations processes and standards, hospitality facilities layout, operating costs and revenues, and investigates the conditions under which the adoption of RAISA would be of benefit of the company. The paper acknowledges that the adoption of RAISA is dependent on the labour and technology costs, customers' readiness and willingness to be served by a robots, cultural characteristics of both customers and service providers, the technological characteristics of RAISA solutions and other factors. The paper elaborates on the practical challenges to be faced by tourist companies when introducing RAISA (e.g. related to resistance to change, reengineering of service processes) and provide recommendations to both tourism companies and robot manufacturers how to deal with these challenges.
This conceptual paper revisits, refreshes and reinforces a 1984 study that challenged hospitality educators to include robotics in their classes and their research. The paper briefly reviews robotics literature, explains three robot categories—industrial, professional service and personal service—emphasises the importance of autonomy and human robot interaction, and provides hospitality and tourism examples. This literature review leads to six areas of importance for teaching and research of robotics in hospitality and tourism. The paper gives academics and practitioners a foundation for envisioning the current and future state of robots in hospitality and tourism.
The long term evaluation of the Sacarino robot is presented in this paper. The study is aimed to improve the robot‘s capabilities as a bellboy in a hotel; walking alongside the guests, providing information about the city and the hotel and providing hotel-related services. The paper establishes a three-stage assessment methodology based on the continuous measurement of a set of metrics regarding navigation and interaction with guests. Sacarino has been automatically collecting information in a real hotel environment for long periods of time. The acquired information has been analyzed and used to improve the robot’s operation in the hotel through successive refinements. Some interesting considerations and useful hints for the researchers of service robots have been extracted from the analysis of the results.
Research in social psychology has extensively referenced and used Fishbein and Ajzen's theory of reasoned action to predict and understand motivational influences on behavior Recently Ajzen has proposed an extension of the theory by including perceptions of behavioral control as an additional predictor of intentions and behavior. The present research compared Ajzen's theory of planned behavior with the theory of reasoned action for 10 behaviors chosen to represent a range with respect to control over performing the behavior. he results indicate that inclusion of perceived behavioral control enhances the prediction of behavioral intention and behavior Consistent with the theory of planned behavior, the effects of perceived behavioral control on a target behavior are most vivid when the behavior presents some problem with respect to control.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 1986. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 233-250). Photocopy.
Technology developments relating to automation, artificial intelligence, and robots have transformed the landscape of service industries, including hospitality and tourism. Through a qualitative content analysis of online review data, this study seeks a comprehensive and grounded understanding of customer experience with service robots in hospitality and tourism settings. The analysis identified four categories of customer experience: (1) sensory experience (verbal language, physical appearance, kinesics, and paralanguage), (2) cognitive experience (utility, cuteness, autonomy, coolness, interactivity, and courtesy), (3) affective experience (enjoyment, novelty, negative emotion, and satisfaction), and (4) conative experience (approach/resistance). Results led to the development of a framework representing customer experience with service robots and to insights into customer-robot interactions. Most customers described positive experiences, and while service robots performed well in delivering functional and emotional value, social interaction skills need improvement.
Robots and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are becoming more prominent in the tourism industry. Nowadays, consumers are faced with multiple options involving both human and robot interactions. A series of experimental studies were implemented. Four experiments demonstrated that consumers had a more positive attitude toward robot-staffed (vs. human-staffed) hotels when COVID-19 was salient. The results were different from previous studies, which were conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the moderating role of perceived threat in consumers’ preference for robot-staffed hotels was significant, the respondents’ preference was attributed to the global health crisis. This research provides a number of theoretical and managerial implications by improving the understanding of technology acceptance during a health crisis.
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’ perceptions and concerns over the use of robots is presented that can guide future studies. Tourism stakeholders may look at the possibility of incorporating carefully designed anthropomorphic robots in key service positions, but should not give the impression that robots are replacing the human face of the organization.
Practical implications
Tourism stakeholders may look at the possibility of incorporating carefully designed anthropomorphic robots in key service positions, but should not give the impression that robots are replacing the human face of the organization.
Originality/value
Tourism organizations that make use of robots run the risk of being perceived as nonanthropocentric. This leads to the conclusion that anthropomorphism could be used but should not replace the sector’s anthropocentrism. The study conveys tourists’ concerns over technological (robot) determinism.
Services are changing at an impressive pace boosted by the technological advances felt in Robotics, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) that have uncovered new research opportunities. Our objective is to contribute to the literature by exploring the pros and cons of the use of service robots in the hospitality industry and to practice, by presenting the architectural and technological characteristics of a fully automated plant based on a relevant case. To achieve such goal, this article uses a systematic literature review to assess the state-of-the-art, characterize the unit of analysis, and find new avenues for further research. The results indicate that, in high customer contact settings, service robots tend to outperform humans when performing standardized tasks, because of their mechanical and analytical nature. Evidence also shows that, in some cases, service robots have not yet achieved the desired technological maturity to proficiently replace humans. In other words, the technology is not quite there yet, but this does not contradict the fact that new robot technologies, enabled by AI, will be able to replace the employees’ empathetic intelligence. In practical terms, organizations are facing challenges where they have to decide whether service robots are capable of completely replacing human labor or if they should rather invest in balanced options, such as human-robot systems, that seem to be a much more rational choice today.
Hotel industry started to adopt service robots, which are considered a future workforce. However, no attempt was conducted to examine the dimensionality of service quality of service robots. This paper aims to understand the influence of human–robot interaction from the viewpoint of hoteliers and guests. Two studies are conducted in this respect. Study 1 organizes focus-group interviews with hotel managers from various departments to elicit themes related to guest–robot interaction and robot-delivered services. Based on the findings in Study 1, Study 2 conducts an experiment to examine and compare hotel guests’ perceptions about the quality of services provided by human staff and service robots, as well as their joint services. Human staff services are perceived higher than the services of service robots in terms of interaction quality and physical service environment. However, no significant difference in outcome quality is noted.
Social robots have become pervasive in the tourism and hospitality service environments. The empirical understanding of the drivers of visitors' intentions to use robots in such services has become an urgent necessity for their sustainable deployment. Certainly, using social androids within hospitality services requires organisations' attentive commitment to value creation and fulfilling service quality expectations. In this paper, via structural equation modelling (SEM) and semi-structured interviews with managers, we conceptualise and empirically test visitors' intentions to use social robots in hospitality services. With data collected in Singapore's hospitality settings, we found visitors' intentions to use social robots stem from the effects of technology acceptance variables, service quality dimensions leading to perceived value, and two further dimensions from human robot interaction (HRI): empathy and information sharing. Analysis of these dimensions' importance provides a deeper understanding of novel opportunities managers may take advantage of to position social robot-delivered services in tourism and hospitality strategies.
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This study investigated the influence of service robot attributes on customers’ hospitality experience from the perspective of relationship building. Through literature review and a preliminary study with in-depth interviews, a conceptual framework was developed. A scenario-based experiment and questionnaire survey were designed to test the model. The results indicate that robots’ being perceived as humanlike or intelligent positively affects customer-robot rapport building and the hospitality experience. Additionally, customer-employee rapport building was found to mediate the relationship between robot attributes and the hospitality experience, but customer-robot rapport building was not. Based on these findings, theoretical contributions and practical implications were discussed.
As new technologies continue to advance consumer experience, utilization of service robots and artificial intelligence to deliver human services has been increasingly gaining attention from hospitality and tourism businesses. This research sets out to conceptualize and test a multi-dimensional Service Robot Integration Willingness (SRIW) Scale that uncovers the key dimensions characterizing consumers’ long-term willingness to integrate artificial intelligence and service robots into regular service transactions. Drawing on a five-stage scale development procedure, a 36-item six-dimensional SRIW scale was developed, which includes performance efficacy, intrinsic motivation, anthropomorphism, social influence, facilitating condition, and emotions. The SRIW scale demonstrates rigorous psychometric properties per findings of construct validity and reliability tests, and invariance analysis across four service industries (e.g., hotels, restaurants, airlines, and retail stores) where service robots have already been or are likely to be launched. Theoretical and managerial implications of the SRIW scale and directions for future research are elaborated.
The most complete form of the sociological datum, after all, is the form in which the participant observer gathers it: An observation of some social event, the events which precede and follow it, and explanations of its meaning by participants and spectators, before, during, and after its occurrence. Such a datum gives us more information about the event under study than data gathered by any other sociological method. Participant observation can thus provide us with a yardstick against which to measure the completeness of data gathered in other ways, a model which can serve to let us know what orders of information escape us when we use other methods.
High internal validity and longitudinality of research projects are very important to ensure confidence in the results obtained. Experimental designs are highly recommended to ensure internal validity; repeated measures can aid in designing longitudinal studies. This article illustrates the use of repeated measures experimental design in hospitality research. Methodological implications are discussed.
This study analyzed the effects of the psychological characteristic of sensation seeking on the choice of tourist activities and preferred travel arrangements. The results of the study, which was conducted among 349 undergraduate students in Israel, found that those who preferred to participate in extreme sports while on a leisure trip, scored higher on Zuckerman Sensation Seeking Scale (SSS) than those who preferred to visit cultural/heritage attractions, man made attractions, natural attractions, view sporting games or participate in traditional sports. The study also discovered that individuals who made their own travel arrangements (FIT) scored higher on the SSS, than those who preferred to travel with guided tour groups, with packaged tours, with family or with friends.
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