Robot with humanoid hands cooks food better?

Abstract

Purpose Robotic chefs are starting to replace human chefs in restaurant industry. Whether customers have a good food quality prediction may have an important effect on their patronage decision. Based on the stereotype content model, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of robotic chef anthropomorphism on food quality prediction through warmth and competence. Design/methodology/approach An empirical analysis was done to test the theoretical model by using the SmartPLS software. A nonhuman-like robotic chef and a robotic chef with humanoid hands were used as background materials in the questionnaire. The effective sample was 221. Findings Robotic chef anthropomorphism affects food quality prediction through the sequential mediators of warmth and competence. Age is a significant control variable. Research limitations/implications Robotic chef anthropomorphism positively affects food quality prediction. The halo effect of warmth perception on competence perception should be considered in the context of robot anthropomorphism. Practical implications Restaurants which feature robotic chefs should use robotic chefs with anthropomorphic designs and promote the anthropomorphic elements of robotic chefs in advertisements. Social implications The anthropomorphic design of robot chefs will facilitate the development of artificial intelligence in restaurants in the future. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first to focus on how robotic chef anthropomorphism affects food quality prediction and reveals the roles of warmth and competence in the influence of robotic chef anthropomorphism on food quality prediction.

Examining the effects of robots' physical appearance, warmth, and competence in frontline services: The Humanness‐Value‐Loyalty model

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Influences of artificial intelligence (AI) awareness on career competency and job burnout

“…The career uncertainty and job insecurity make them feel emotionally exhausted (Ito and Brotheridge, 2001). The using of AI may replace employees' position in their organization (Zhu and Chang, 2020), and affect employees' career development. Employees' personal needs may not be satisfied through careers; they are likely to suffer career dissatisfaction (Karatepe, 2012).…”

Hotel managers’ perceptions towards the use of robots: a mixed-methods approach

“…Empirical studies are largely devoted to the demand-side perspective of the use of service robots in tourism with an emphasis on customer attitudes towards and acceptance of robots (Ivanov, Webster & Garenko, 2018;Ivanov, Webster & Seyyedi, 2018;Lin, Chi & Gursoy, 2019;Lu, Cai & Gursoy, 2019;Stock & Merkle, 2017;, customers' trust in robots (Park, 2020;Tussyadiah, Zach & Wang, 2020), tasks perceived by tourists as appropriate for robotisation (Ivanov & Webster, 2019a, 2019b, customer evaluation of service robots (Tussyadiah & Park, 2018), the impact of language styles in the service encounter (Choi, Liu & Mattila, 2019), the effects of robotic service on guest evaluations of hotel brand experience (Chan & Tung, 2019). Studies have also investigated the role of robots in the service recovery process (Ho, Tojib & Tsarenko, 2020), the nudging effect of robots on stimulating proenvironmental behaviour of tourists (Tussyadiah & Miller, 2019), heart-warming interaction between customers and robots (Nakanishi et al, 2020), the effect of service robot attributes on customers' expected rapport building with robots (Qiu et al, 2020), tourists' perceptions about the appearance of robots (Yu, 2018(Yu, , 2020Yu & Ngan, 2019), the impact of robot service on purchase intentions (Zhong et al, 2020) and robot use intentions (de Kervenoael et al, 2020), the impact of robotic chef anthropomorphism on food quality prediction (Zhu et al, 2020). The research focus on tourists is logical because if customers do not want to be served by robots, if they resist, avoid, or do not wish to pay for robot-delivered services, then tourism and hospitality companies would find it challenging to introduce robots in their operations.…”