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Following a contingency approach, this paper aims to understand when service automation can enhance or destroy value for customers in the frontline by (1) providing a comprehensive overview of factors that influence the value co-creation/co-destruction potential of service automation and (2) zooming in on the combination of service contexts and service tasks to develop research propositions.

This paper uses a grounded theory approach based on qualitative data from multiple methods (i.e. a diary study with follow-up interviews, a consultation of academic experts and a storyboard study) as well as a systematic literature review to develop (1) a Framework of Automated Service Interactions (FASI) and (2) a contingency model for service tasks/contexts.

This paper presents a framework which gives an overview of factors influencing the value co-creation/co-destruction potential of service automation. The framework discerns between three types of factors: service design (i.e. controllable and manageable by the organization), static contingency (i.e. uncontrollable and fixed) and dynamic contingency (i.e. uncontrollable and flexible). Furthermore, the paper presents a contingency model based on the combination of service contexts and service tasks which results in seven research propositions.

This paper brings structure in the fragmented field of service automation. It integrates and summarizes insights regarding service automation and sheds more light on when service automation has the potential to create or destroy value in the organizational frontline.

Although consumers feel that the move toward service robots in the frontline so far was driven by firms' strive to replace human service agents and realize cost savings accordingly, the COVID-19 pandemic has led customers to appreciate frontline robots' ability to provide services in ways that keep them safe and protected from the virus. Still, research on this topic is scant. This article offers guidance by providing a theoretical backdrop for the safety perspective on service robots, as well as outlining a typology that researchers and practitioners can use to further advance this field.

A typology is developed based on a combination of a theory- and practice-driven approach. Departing from the type of behavior performed by the service robot, the typology synthesizes three different service robot roles from past literature and proposes three new safety-related role extensions. These safety-related roles are derived from a search for examples of how service robots are used in practice during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The typology's roles are corroborated by discussing relevant robot implementations around the globe. Jointly, the six roles give rise to several ideas that jointly constitute a future research agenda.

This manuscript is (one of) the first to provide in-depth attention to the phenomenon of service customers' physical safety needs in the age of service robots. In doing so, it discusses and ties together theories and concepts from different fields, such as hierarchy of needs theory, evolutionary human motives theory, perceived risk theory, regulatory focus theory, job demand–resources theory, and theory of artificial intelligence job replacement.