{"title":"Unintended indulgence in robotic service encounters","authors":"Sungwoo Choi , Lisa C. Wan , Anna S. Mattila","doi":"10.1016/j.annals.2024.103768","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>The hospitality and tourism industry is moving closer to implementing robotic service encounters as more companies use service robots in frontline service positions. However, we still lack knowledge of the unintentional effects of robotic service encounters. In three field and online experimental studies, we found that robotic service encounters unintentionally drive people to make indulgent choices because interacting with robots generates an exclusionary experience and a situational need to belong. These effects were muted when the service robot was humanlike and in the context of group consumption. This research contributes to the service robot and indulgence literature. Our findings suggest that managers should cautiously deploy service robots at their frontline, given consumers' growing interest in a healthy lifestyle.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48452,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Tourism Research","volume":"106 ","pages":"Article 103768"},"PeriodicalIF":10.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-04-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Annals of Tourism Research","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738324000458","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The hospitality and tourism industry is moving closer to implementing robotic service encounters as more companies use service robots in frontline service positions. However, we still lack knowledge of the unintentional effects of robotic service encounters. In three field and online experimental studies, we found that robotic service encounters unintentionally drive people to make indulgent choices because interacting with robots generates an exclusionary experience and a situational need to belong. These effects were muted when the service robot was humanlike and in the context of group consumption. This research contributes to the service robot and indulgence literature. Our findings suggest that managers should cautiously deploy service robots at their frontline, given consumers' growing interest in a healthy lifestyle.
期刊介绍:
The Annals of Tourism Research is a scholarly journal that focuses on academic perspectives related to tourism. The journal defines tourism as a global economic activity that involves travel behavior, management and marketing activities of service industries catering to consumer demand, the effects of tourism on communities, and policy and governance at local, national, and international levels. While the journal aims to strike a balance between theory and application, its primary focus is on developing theoretical constructs that bridge the gap between business and the social and behavioral sciences. The disciplinary areas covered in the journal include, but are not limited to, service industries management, marketing science, consumer marketing, decision-making and behavior, business ethics, economics and forecasting, environment, geography and development, education and knowledge development, political science and administration, consumer-focused psychology, and anthropology and sociology.