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To enhance customer experiences, firms are increasingly adding human-like features to their self-service technology (SST) machines. To that end, the purpose of the present study is to examine customer interactions with an anthropomorphic machine in a service failure context. Specifically, the authors investigate the joint effects of machine voice, an individual’s sense of power and the presence of other customers in influencing customers’ switching intentions following an SST failure.

In this study, the authors used a quasi-experimental design in which they manipulated voice type (anthropomorphic vs robotic) and the presence of other customers (present vs absent) in video-based scenarios while measuring customers’ sense of power. The scenarios reflected a service failure experience with a self-service kiosk at an airport. The authors tested the hypotheses using PROCESS analyses with the Johnson–Neyman technique.

Consumer reactions to SST failures vary depending on the degree of anthropomorphism associated with an SST machine, an individual’s sense of power and the presence of other customers.

Field inquiry and an investigation in other SST contexts or of other anthropomorphic features are needed to generalize the findings.

Service providers targeting powerful consumers should consider the social presence of others when incorporating anthropomorphic features into their SST facilities.

This study is the first to examine consumer responses to service failures in an anthropomorphic SST context.

Taking a mixed-method approach, this research developed and validated a novel, value-centric experience framework delineating robotic involvement in the service encounter and its subsequent impact on customers' experiences.

Focused on robotic restaurant businesses where robots are mainly involved in food production processes, this research utilized online customer review data and a multistage, mixed-method design for empirical examination. Automated thematic analysis was first adopted to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the empirical reality as reflected in online customer reviews. Following an analytic induction process, a theoretical framework was developed integrating prior literature with the empirical reality to uncover the relationships across robotic involvement, experiential values and evaluative outcomes. A theory-driven, dictionary-based content analysis together with path analysis further enabled empirical validation of the developed theoretical framework.

The current research developed and validated a value-centric experience framework to theorize robotic involvement in the service encounter and its downstream impact on customers' experiences. Specifically, this framework conceptualizes robotic involvement as a five-dimensional composition of robotic visibility, competency, performanism, co-creativity and prominence. In addition, the framework specifies seven dimensions of experiential values revolving around high-tech–high-touch robotic service encounters, namely sensorial, utilitarian, hedonic, social, agentic, epistemic and aesthetic values. Following empirical validation, this framework sheds light on robotic involvement and experience design for high-tech–high-touch service businesses aiming to incorporate robots in their service encounters.

Drawing on classic service role theory and consumption value theory, this research developed and validated a novel theoretical model connecting robotic involvement dimensions with experiential consumption values and downstream customer evaluative outcomes. This research and theoretical framework open an exciting avenue for future research in robotic services and customer experiences.

Consumers increasingly depend on the internet as the information source to make their hospitality decisions, which highlights the need for more research in online recommendation. Due to the globalization, culture and its effects on marketing become an increasingly important subject to investigate. Therefore, this paper aims to offer a cross-cultural investigation of consumers’ different trustworthiness and credibility perceptions when facing online recommendations from different information resources.

This research uses the source-credibility theory to examine consumers’ responses to online recommendations from two sources. Participants were recruited from two equivalent marketing panels in each culture. A 2 (online recommendation source: in-group vs out-group) by 2 (culture: American vs Chinese) between-subjects quasi-experiment was conducted to test the hypotheses.

The results demonstrate that culture moderates consumer responses to the two types of online sources. Chinese consumers, due to their more collectivist nature, exhibit higher levels of purchase intent when the recommendation originates from an in-group rather than from an out-group. Such differences are not observed among the more individualist American consumers. Furthermore, trustworthiness plays an important role in influencing Chinese consumers’ perception of recommendation credibility and the consequent purchase intent.

This research provides guidelines to hospitality practitioners when developing their social networking sites and online marketing strategies across different cultures.

The current study conducts an in-depth investigation of cultural differences in consumers’ perceptions of and reactions to online recommendations from other customers with various social distances.

Drawing on the dual process theory and the cultural dimension of power distance, the current research investigates the impact of a specific service clue—the linguistic style of address forms (salutation) in hotel manager letters to guests—on customer satisfaction in a hotel context in Ecuador.

Following an experimental design research approach, this research conducted a series of two studies to examine how customers' cultural values (high vs low power distance), linguistic style of address forms (formal vs casual) and service valence (service success vs service failure) together influenced customer satisfaction. Specifically, Study 1 examined the service success condition, and Study 2 investigated the service failure condition.

The research results show that, in the service success condition, customers follow their distinct cultural orientations (high vs low power distance) when responding to the different linguistic styles (formal vs casual). On the other hand, in the service failure situation, as customers desire for expressions of respect that can be reflected in a formal address form, the level of satisfaction is lower when the casual address form is used in guest communications, regardless of customers' cultural orientations in power distance.

This research adds to existing cross-cultural service research, particularly in terms of service valence, and provides practical implications for enhancing service providers' cultural awareness and sociolinguistic competence to effectively communicate with customers from diverse cultural backgrounds.

This study aims to compare the performance of self-service kiosks in a quick-service setting with the performance of cashiers. In particular, this study explores both internal responses and external responses between the two ordering methods with the moderating role of crowdedness.

This study develops a theoretical framework based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model. A 2 × 2 field experiment was conducted in a real quick-service outlet to collect data.

The results reveal that customers reported a better experience when using self-service kiosks compared to placing orders with cashiers. However, cashiers generated more revenue for the quick-service outlet than kiosks. Significant interaction effects were found for external responses. Customers spent more time placing orders with cashiers than with kiosks in less crowded periods, while cashiers generated more sales than kiosks during busier periods.

This study enriches the hospitality and tourism literature by applying the S-O-R framework in an experimental design incorporating both internal and external responses. The findings on the interaction between ordering methods and crowdedness on external responses provide practical insights for quick-service restaurant operators to find a balance between technology and human services.

自助服务机可否超越收银员? 以刺激 – 机制 – 反应 (SOR) 模型作为理论框架的点餐体验研究

本论文在快餐环境下比较自助服务机与收银员的业绩表现差异。具体而言, 本研究从内部和外部反映两方面探索了两种不同点餐方法以及就餐环境拥挤程度作为调节变量。

本研究借用刺激 – 机制 – 反应 (SOR) 模型作为理论框架, 以快餐店为环境进行了2x2 实验。

研究结果显示, 相比较餐饮收银员, 消费者对自助服务机更加较积极的顾客反应。但是餐厅收银员会产生相对较高的销售额。针对对外反应, 研究结果呈现显著的交互作用。 消费者在相对不拥挤的环境下更愿意花时间借助自助服务机点餐, 但是收银员比自助服务机在高峰时段更能产生较高销售额。

本研究借助SOR的理论框架用实验法来研究消费者内部和外部反应, 从而进一步充实了酒店和旅游文献。基于点餐方法和拥挤程度的交互作用, 本研究结果为快餐产业实现人工和科技的平衡提供了实践意义。

自助服务机 S-O-R 理论框架 快餐厅 拥挤程度 内部反应 外部反应

研究型论文

This study aims to investigate Generation Z’s perception of and experience with restaurant service robots.

Established on the servicescape theoretical framework and following Zaltman Metaphoric Elicitation Technique, 34 in-depth interviews were conducted with Generation Z consumers.

The results showed that Generation Z consumers had a generally positive attitude toward the usage of service robots in restaurants. Research participants also indicated aspects that can be improved: the service robot’s appearance design and functionality, and the human service facilitating the robotic service process.

This paper provides a holistic understanding of the Generation Z’s mind maps about robot service restaurants presenting practical suggestions for restaurants.

This research offers an in-depth understanding of how the young consumption power perceives and expects the innovative service robots employed in restaurants. The research findings provide industry practitioners with timely guidelines to improve the usage of robotic services in restaurants to satisfy the emerging consumer group of Generation Z.

The current research contributes to the servicescape literature by extending this long-standing theory to the emerging robotic service contexts for updating discoveries. Particularly, the study focuses on the young consumers of Generation Z, shedding lights on the generational cohort research.

本研究调查了 Z 世代对餐厅服务机器人的看法和体验。

建立在服务场景理论框架之上, 并遵循 Zaltman 隐喻启发技术, 对 Z 世代消费者进行了 34 次深入访谈。

结果表明, Z 世代消费者对在餐厅使用服务机器人持普遍积极态度。 研究参与者还指出了可以改进的方面：服务机器人的外观设计和功能, 以及促进机器人服务过程的人工服务。

这项研究深入了解了年轻的消费力量如何看待和期望在餐厅使用的创新服务机器人。 研究结果为行业从业者提供了及时的指导方针, 以改善机器人服务在餐厅的使用, 以满足 Z 世代的新兴消费群体。

当前的研究通过将这一长期存在的理论扩展到新兴的机器人服务环境以更新发现, 从而为服务景观文献做出贡献。 特别是, 该研究侧重于 Z 世代的年轻消费者, 阐明了世代队列研究。

Drawing on the social exchange theory, stakeholder theory and extended theory of reasoned action, this study aims to investigate how consumers view the economic and sociocultural impacts (benefits/costs) of peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodations on the local community’s resilience and how consumers form behavioral intentions toward P2P accommodation as a part of sustainable tourism behavior.

With data from a survey of 300 consumers who have previously used P2P accommodation, the authors performed partial least squares-structural equation modeling to test the proposed model and hypotheses.

The current study reveals the significant impact of the sociocultural benefits of P2P accommodations on consumers’ perceived community resilience, while economic benefits have a non-significant impact on perceived community resilience. Moreover, neither the sociocultural nor economic costs of P2P accommodation significantly reduce consumers’ perceived community resilience. Furthermore, the authors found significant positive relationships among perceived community resilience, attitude, subjective norm, personal norm and behavioral intentions.

P2P accommodation platforms can leverage these research findings and contribute to the community resilience and help community residents by establishing strategic collaboration with various stakeholders (e.g. governments, destination marketing organizations and non-profit organizations) for the community’s sustainable development.

This study systematically investigates the role of P2P accommodation in achieving community resilience by categorizing the impacts of P2P accommodation into economic and sociocultural benefits/costs.

This paper aims to investigate how the contextual marketing strategy facilitated by mobile technology enhances consumers’ purchase intention and experiential quality in a hedonic service setting – museum. Specifically, this study explores the impacts of a context-triggered push notification promoting context-related souvenirs embedded in the museum mobile app on visitors’ souvenir purchase intention and visit experience.

This study adopted a scenario-based experimental design with video stimuli and a follow-up survey questionnaire. A total of 151 participants were randomly assigned to one of the two art museum visiting scenarios (i.e. with vs without the in-app push notification). A series of one-way ANOVA comparisons and serial mediation tests were conducted for hypotheses testing.

The results show that the mobile app promoting context-related souvenirs positively affects museum visitors’ souvenir purchase intention without undermining their experiential quality. The serial mediation effects through contextual perceived value and impulse buying tendency further explain how the in-app push notification influences visitors’ souvenir purchase intention.

This study extends the contextual marketing research to a unique service domain (i.e. museum) and contributes to the service technology literature. The findings present empirical evidence for the effectiveness of mobile contextual marketing and its potential to enhance consumers’ experiential quality in a hedonic service setting. The current research provides practical guidelines to both the museum management and mobile app developers.

Off-premise restaurant service has a new addition – food delivery robots. This new technology and off-premise service, in general, has received little research attention, despite continued year-over-year sales growth for both carry-out and delivery. Therefore, this study aims to analyze off-premise service modes, including food delivery robots, for service quality gaps between consumer expectations and actual performance and among the various modes.

Performance of three off-premise restaurant service modes (robot-delivery, human-delivery and carry-out) were evaluated using a mixed-methods approach. Consumer expectations were ascertained about food- and service-related performance factors using a survey, and a field observation study was conducted to obtain actual performance data for these factors. Findings from both approaches were compared to identify gaps and differences.

For food-related performance, consumers reported lower expectations for food safety and food quality from robot- and human-delivered food; however, no differences were observed among the three modes in the field study. Consumers also expected lower service-related performance from robot-delivery for service efficiency and ease of use (than human-delivery and carry-out) and monetary value (than carry-out). Consumers deemed robots the most sustainable and human-delivery the most convenient compared to other modes – however, not all service-related expectations aligned with actual performances.

This study was the first to comparatively examine off-premise restaurant service. Identification of a missing link in service gap analysis was among the theoretical contributions of this study. Managerially, this study provides previously unavailable insights into opportunities for improvement for off-premise service and use of delivery robots.

Drawing on protection motivation theory (PMT) and expectancy theory, this study aims to investigate consumers’ lodging consumption intentions during a pandemic crisis.

The research survey was conducted during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (August, 2020) in the USA to investigate consumers’ lodging intentions amidst the pandemic crisis. PLS-SEM and multiple regression were conducted to explore answers to proposed research questions.

The research finds that, during the pandemic crisis, consumers’ lodging consumption intentions are subject to both their internal protection motivation evaluations and the external prevention practices implemented by the lodging facilities regardless of property types and travel purposes. Notably, the research finds that consumers are willing to make efforts and pay extra for a safe stay at lodging facilities.

This research contributes to the literature regarding the applications of PMT and expectancy theory from a crisis management perspective, and it provides implications and guidelines to the crisis management practices in the lodging industry.

The current research examines the specific protection motivation appraisal factors and prevention practices significantly impacting consumers’ decisions in terms of willingness to stay at various lodging facilities (hotels and non-hotel homestay/short-term rental properties) for different purposes (business and leisure) and to pay premiums for a safe stay.