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This study aims to introduce a conceptual framework for service robot (SR) acceptance by customers, employees and policymakers – a framework to help determine corporate decision-making on SR workplace integration.

This study reviews SR adoption literature within the tourism and hospitality industry. These SRs may have some level of artificial intelligence capability and possibly anthropomorphic (e.g. humanoid) or zoomorphic (e.g. animal-like) features, contingent on task and design choices. The study then identifies factors that potentially influence employee and consumer acceptance and experiences of SR, as well as policy and compliance factors and all elements of the corporate decision-making process concerning SR adoption in the hospitality setting.

This paper reviews the obstacles and benefits of SR adoption in the hospitality industry based on employee, consumer and public policy considerations.

SRs are increasingly deployed within hospitality and tourism settings. Future studies should further explore the value-adding functions of SRs implemented in existing hospitality operations.

Hospitality and tourism industry practitioners should integrate the dimensions in the conceptual framework to make fully informed decisions on SR adoption.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to provide a holistic SR adoption framework offering theoretical and practical implications for ongoing SR research and implementation.

Smart card-based E-payment systems are receiving increasing attention as the number of implementations is witnessed on the rise globally. Understanding of user adoption behavior of E-payment systems that employ smart card technology becomes a research area that is of particular value and interest to both IS researchers and professionals. However, research interest focuses mostly on why a smart card-based E-payment system results in a failure or how the system could have grown into a success. This signals the fact that researchers have not had much opportunity to critically review a smart card-based E-payment system that has gained wide support and overcome the hurdle of critical mass adoption. The Octopus in Hong Kong has provided a rare opportunity for investigating smart card-based E-payment system because of its unprecedented success. This research seeks to thoroughly analyze the Octopus from technology adoption behavior perspectives.

Cultural impacts on adoption behavior are one of the key areas that this research posits to investigate. Since the present research is conducted in Hong Kong where a majority of population is Chinese ethnicity and yet is westernized in a number of aspects, assuming that users in Hong Kong are characterized by eastern or western culture is less useful. Explicit cultural characteristics at individual level are tapped into here instead of applying generalization of cultural beliefs to users to more accurately reflect cultural bias. In this vein, the technology acceptance model (TAM) is adapted, extended, and tested for its applicability cross-culturally in Hong Kong on the Octopus. Four cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede are included in this study, namely uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, individualism, and Confucian Dynamism (long-term orientation), to explore their influence on usage behavior through the mediation of perceived usefulness.

TAM is also integrated with the innovation diffusion theory (IDT) to borrow two constructs in relation to innovative characteristics, namely relative advantage and compatibility, in order to enhance the explanatory power of the proposed research model. Besides, the normative accountability of the research model is strengthened by embracing two social influences, namely subjective norm and image. As the last antecedent to perceived usefulness, prior experience serves to bring in the time variation factor to allow level of prior experience to exert both direct and moderating effects on perceived usefulness.

The resulting research model is analyzed by partial least squares (PLS)-based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach. The research findings reveal that all cultural dimensions demonstrate direct effect on perceived usefulness though the influence of uncertainty avoidance is found marginally significant. Other constructs on innovative characteristics and social influences are validated to be significant as hypothesized. Prior experience does indeed significantly moderate the two influences that perceived usefulness receives from relative advantage and compatibility, respectively. The research model has demonstrated convincing explanatory power and so may be employed for further studies in other contexts. In particular, cultural effects play a key role in contributing to the uniqueness of the model, enabling it to be an effective tool to help critically understand increasingly internationalized IS system development and implementation efforts. This research also suggests several practical implications in view of the findings that could better inform managerial decisions for designing, implementing, or promoting smart card-based E-payment system.

We review the literature on individual acceptance of technology to show how organizations can improve the effective use of human resource web-based technologies. Integrating and expanding several theoretical models of technology acceptance, we develop a perceptual model of employee self-service (ESS) acceptance and usage. Based on this model, we propose several key individual, technological, and organizational factors relevant to individual intentions to use ESS technology. We summarize these in several testable propositions and also discuss implications for organizational researchers and practitioners.

To analyze lower level employees' retrospective views of their experience with organizational changes introduced by management; to provide a typology of change responses based on employees' interpretations.

Canadian bank employees' accounts of their experience with change were obtained in interviews and analyzed using established guidelines for qualitative data analysis. A typology of change responses (acceptance, resigned compliance, avoidance/opposition, and ambivalence) was derived from the data. Links are made to the literature on readiness for, compliance with and resistance to, change, and to the literatures on framing and on identity as they inform responses to change.

Among others, the findings indicate: that changes that are compatible with employees' role identity or that are viewed as enhancing organizational identity tend to be easily embraced; the extensive prevalence of the “resigned compliance” response; that lack of participation in change decisions may be a common expectation among employees of large bureaucratic organizations that seek uniformity across widely dispersed geographic units; and opposition to change may be functional from an organizational standpoint.

Several research implications are outlined including the need for theories to consider that change has been ubiquitous and that its pervasiveness can place its legitimacy beyond questioning. Research limitation includes the fact that the study focused on change survivors and did not have access to employees who had willingly left, or were asked to leave the organization as changes were being implemented.

The study provides an understanding of the dynamics that underlie different responses to change. Understanding such dynamics is essential for the performance of the change agent role.

Unlike much of the extant literature that tends to focus on the managerial view of change and on managerial framing, this study contributes the lower level employee perspective on, and framing of, change. In contrast with other studies of change that attend to a specific change situation, this article focuses on experiences with multiple changes and on the general view of change held by participants. The study also addresses a gap in the literature, as empirical studies have failed to tie responses to change to identity dynamics.

Blockchain can track the material from the manufacturer to the end customers. Therefore, it can ensure the product's authenticity, transparency and trust in the retail supply chain (SC). There is a need to trace and track the retail products before it reaches the customers to check the quality of the products so that expired products can be recycled and reused, which in turn will help gain customers' trust. This research aims to investigate retail employees' behavioural intention to adopt blockchain in the retail SC.

To examine the behavioural intention of employees in the retail SC, the research uses three theories – the technology acceptance model; the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology; and the theory of planned behaviour. The technology acceptance model measures the employee's acceptance of blockchain in the retail SC. The unified theory of acceptance is used in this research to measure how blockchain adoption will improve the performance of the employees. The theory of planned behaviour is used in this research to measure whether the employees intend to adopt blockchain. A survey was carried out in the retail stores of India. Exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used for data analysis.

This study found that the employees of the retail stores have a positive intention and attitude to adopt blockchain technology. Further, it was found that perceived behavioural control and effort expectancy was not promoting blockchain adoption in the retail sector.

This study will help the retail stores' employees understand the blockchain in their operations and will motivate the top management of the retail companies to adopt this technology. The study is limited to the retail SC in India only.

This study uses three theories technology acceptance model; the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology; and the theory of planned behaviour, which were not used in earlier studies of blockchain adoption in the retail SC.

The purpose of this paper is to present a research project on attitude towards electronic human resource management (E‐HRM). A research model was formulated, based on two theories from complementary research areas: Davis' technology acceptance model and Ulrich's model on HR roles.

The study used an online questionnaire, in which 99 managers and 257 employees within Philips (Electronics) Netherlands participated. Managers and employees answered questions as to their previous experiences with regard to IT systems in general, their preferred HR roles, and their attitude towards E‐HRM systems.

Differences in perceived usability of current IT systems, as well as the preferred HR roles strategic partner (high preference) and employee champion (low preference), were related to a positive attitude towards E‐HRM systems. For managers, user support was also found to be a predictor of a positive attitude towards E‐HRM.

This research suggests a multi‐factorial framework that can help organizations in understanding and solving difficulties of implementation with E‐HRM systems, as far as attitude towards these systems is concerned.

HR practices are only effective if they are well accepted by employees. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of two forms of support on the acceptance of newly introduced HR practices (NHRPs): that of top managers and of supervisors. In addition, the authors analyze how these two forms of support work in conjunction with one another. The authors argue that a lack of consistency between the two impairs NHRP acceptance. The authors also explore variations in acceptance under different organizational climates.

The analysis is based on an original sample of 307 employees from nine multinational companies operating in Spain. Multilevel regression analysis is used to test the hypotheses.

The authors found that top management support, supervisor support, and innovation climate are all predictors of NHRP acceptance. The authors also found that low supervisor support reduces the effect of top management support. Finally, the authors found that innovation climate is not a substitute for management and supervisor support.

The findings suggest that top management and supervisor behavior is critical to gaining employee acceptance of NHRPs, no matter how well designed such practices are or how well they address the needs of the organization and its employees. The findings also indicate that top managers and supervisors should coordinate the introduction of NHRPs, since employees perceive support signals from these two agents not only individually but also in conjunction.

Recognizing that employee acceptance is an important determinant of the effectiveness of HR practices, the authors make a unique contribution to the literature by investigating some critical contextual enablers of acceptance.

Although mobile devices are ubiquitous among employees, their awareness and readiness to use mobile technologies for competence development is still not widespread and therefore requires further exploration. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual model based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to explain the determinants that affect employees’ intention to use mobile devices and software for knowledge transfer during the process of knowledge management.

A conceptual model based on the UTAUT with new variables concerning relative usability (RU) and user autonomy (UA) and new connections between the determinants was developed as a result of a subject matter literature review. A structural equation modelling approach was used to validate the model on the basis of data collected via a survey collected from 371 employees from 21 sectors, both public and private.

The UTAUT model extended by new variables like RU and UA explains employee acceptance of mobile technologies for knowledge transfer reasonably well. New proposed variables highlighted that the usability of technology compared to other solutions and user autonomy in the selection and the use of applications have the strongest impact on the employees’ intention to use mobile devices and software for knowledge transfer.

This model explains the 55 per cent behavioral intention of employees to use mobile technologies for knowledge transfer. Even though it is quite high in terms of acceptance theories, some new variables should be explored. Furthermore, study does not verify whether m-learning acceptance for knowledge transfer is sector-specific.

Mobile technologies used for knowledge transfer by employees should allow for high UA through their ability to select solutions that they find convenient, use of preferred platforms, personalize applications and utilize devices and software in various environments. They should not be simplified and should have the same functionality and efficiency of use as alternative solutions like web and desktop applications, even if additional effort to learn them would be required. Mobile technologies that take into account UA and RU support the process of employees capturing, distributing and effectively using knowledge.

The elaborated model provides a valuable solution with practical implications for increasing mobile technologies acceptance for knowledge transfer. The study results contribute both to knowledge management and technology acceptance research fields by introducing two new determinants for the acceptance of technologies in knowledge transfer, such as UA and RU with several additional connections between existing UTAUT variables.

The provision of accommodation devices is said to aid organizational inclusion of employees with a disability. However, devices that are meant to enable might only partially facilitate productivity, independence, and social inclusion if these devices are not accepted by the user's workgroup. The authors outline a conceptual model of accommodation device acceptance through a sociomaterial lens to suggest conditions influencing workgroup device acceptance.

To build the model, the authors draw upon the sociomateriality and disability literature to frame accommodation devices as experienced in ongoing interactions, representing the goals, feelings, and interpretations of specific workgroups. The authors also unpack attributes of devices—instrumentality, aesthetics, and symbolism—and propose how each of these can pattern social conduct to influence device acceptance. The authors then draw upon the disability literature to identify attributes of workgroups that can be expected to amplify or diminish the effect of device attributes on device acceptance in that workgroup.

The conceptualization, which the authors illustrate with examples particular to visual impairment, presents implications for who and what serves as a gatekeeper to accommodation device acceptance and thereby workgroup inclusion.

Prior research has focused on conditions under which devices are requested by users or made available by organizations, undergirded by the assumption that devices are well-specified once provided and that they operate relatively predictably when used in various workgroups. The authors focus instead on what happens after the device is provided and highlight the complex and dynamic interaction between an accommodation device and the workgroup, which influences device and user acceptance.

Whereas past research has been valuable in explaining how “perceived usefulness” (PU) and “perceived ease of use” (PEU) constructs lead to technology acceptance and refusal behaviors in organizations, it has not explored the antecedents of these two factors. The purpose of this paper is to propose an interpretive approach to the study of front-line employees’ sense making of technological change as well as the understanding of behavioral and psychological origins of PU and PEU.

This study analyses a major transition in work mode induced by an IT innovation implemented within a leading French hospitality company. A qualitative method was employed to answer the research questions. The data were collected using 22 in-depth semi-structured interviews from front-line employees and their line managers in five 4-star hotels in Paris. The participants were asked how they made sense of the technological change and what they consider when they judge the usefulness and the ease of use during the implementation of change.

The analysis revealed that employees’ acceptance of technological change is paradoxical and shaped by a continuous process of sense making when using the IT innovation. The findings also suggest that PU can be explained by factors like job relevance, PEU and output quality. Anxiety, playfulness, perceived enjoyment, objective usability and facilitating conditions were identified as antecedents of PEU.

The paper reports the effect of perceptions of social influence, system characteristics, individual differences and facilitating conditions on PU and PEU constructs in IT adoption process. It is among the first to examine the antecedents of such beliefs in the hospitality industry through the use of a qualitative method. It also shows that that three variables – result demonstrability, computer self-efficacy and social influence process described by subjective norm and image – did not play a significant role in influencing the intensions of using the system through PU and PEU.

Understanding the antecedents of the two key predictors in technology acceptance models allows managers to implement efficient adjustments and interventions in order to positively influence employees’ IT innovation acceptance and use.

This qualitative study contributes to open the black boxes concerning the conceptualizations of PU and PEU. It advances the understanding of the employees’ acceptance of IT innovation.