Re-examining Value Co-creation in the Age of Interactive Service Robots

Barnett, Willy; Foos, Adrienne; Gruber, Thorsten; Keeling, Debbie Isobel; Keeling, Kathleen; Nasr, Linda

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-29877-1_85

Cited by 1 publication

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“…According to the International Federation of Robotics (2018), sales of service robots are growing at more than 30% per year, with high levels of growth expected in professional and personal services over the next decade. However, a key challenge is the extent to which service robots can generate positive affective responses that form the basis of high-quality service experiences (Keiningham et al , 2017; Barnett et al , 2013; Benoit et al , 2017). As a result, a growing area of focus is around social robots, defined as “a physical entity embodied in a complex, dynamic, and social environment sufficiently empowered to behave in a manner conducive to its own goals and those of its community” (Duffy, 2003, p. 177).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dashed expectations in service experiences. Effects of robots human-likeness on customers’ responses

Laura

Viglia

Nunan

2023

EJM

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Purpose There is growing interest in the use of human-like social robots, able to undertake complex tasks whilst building consumer engagement. However, further exploration is needed on the optimal level of humanoid appearance for service robots. In particular, the literature is limited with respect to mitigating disconfirmed expectations for robots high in human-likeness. This paper aims to address this gap by testing the effect of robot appearance, disconfirmed expectations and warmth (vs competence) on customers’ responses. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a mixed-method design by presenting a focus group (Study 1) that guides two laboratory experiments (Studies 2 and 3). Studies 2 and 3 test for the moderating effect of warmth (vs competence) and the mediating roles of perceived eeriness and disconfirmed expectations. Findings The findings show that a robot high (vs low) in human-likeness leads to higher negative customers’ responses, which is explained by disconfirmed expectations rather than perceived eeriness. However, when customers interact with a warm (vs competent) robot high in human-likeness, this negative effect vanishes. Research limitations/implications The paper investigates boundary conditions and underlying mechanisms that affect customers’ experiences. Although the study adopts high realistic experiments, a limitation lies in not measuring customers’ actual behaviours in the field. Practical implications This study provides new insights on how the appearance and characteristics of social robots influence the consumers’ experience. By doing so, this study offers managers actionable insights (i.e. enhancing warmth) to lessen the risk of disconfirmed expectations. Originality/value The paper offers new explanations as to why human-like robots can generate negative responses from customers. Moving beyond the “uncanny valley” hypothesis, this study shows the key role of disconfirmed expectations in explaining consumers’ negative responses towards humanoid robots. Moreover, it sheds light on the moderating role of warmth (vs competence), which can mitigate such negative effects.

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