Search results

To explore the politics of gender, health, medicine, and citizenship in high-income countries, medical sociologists have focused primarily on the practice of legal abortion. In middle- and low-income countries with restrictive abortion laws, however, medical sociologists must examine what happens when women have already experienced spontaneous or induced abortion. Post-abortion care (PAC), a global reproductive health intervention that treats complications of abortion and has been implemented in nearly 50 countries worldwide, offers important theoretical insights into transnational politics of abortion and reproduction in countries with restrictive abortion laws. In this chapter, I draw on my ethnography of Senegal’s PAC program to examine the professional, clinical, and technological politics and practices of obstetric care for abortions that have already occurred. I use the sociological concepts of professional boundary work and boundary objects to demonstrate how Senegalese health professionals have established the political and clinical legitimacy of PAC. I demonstrate the professional precariousness of practicing PAC for physicians, midwives, and nurses. I show how the dual capacity of PAC technologies to terminate pregnancy and treat abortion complications has limited their circulation within the health system, thereby reducing quality of care. Given the contradictory and complex global landscape of twenty-first-century abortion governance, in which pharmaceutical forms of abortion such as Misoprostol are increasingly available in developing countries, and as abortion restrictions are increasingly enforced across the developed world, PAC offers important theoretical opportunities to advance medical sociology research on abortion politics and practices in the global North and South.

This study aims to examine the relationship between emotional attachment (EA) and intelligent personal assistant (IPA) continuance intention. While existing theories emphasize purely rational and goal-oriented factors in terms of information technology (IT) continuance intention, this research examines how users' EA toward technology impacts their continuance intention in the absence of cognitive and habitual factors.

This study contextualizes attachment theory from the social psychology/consumer psychology literature to an IT application and formulates and tests a new model that is proposed in the context of IPA continuance. Five research hypotheses developed from contextualization and application of the theory were posited in a structural model and empirically validated using survey results from IPA users.

The results show that users' EA to IPA use significantly influences their IPA continuance intention, along with emotional trust and interaction quality with the IPA.

This study contextualizes attachment theory developed in the social psychology/consumer psychology literature to formulate and test a new model in the context of IPA continuance. This work contributes to the theoretical understanding by investigating IPA continuance intention in the absence of cognitive or habitual factors and fills a critical research gap in IT post-adoption literature. IPA is just one example of technologies to which individuals can form attachments and this research provides an important foundation for future research by positing and testing the value of EA in IT post-adoption behavior. This research also contributes to practical knowledge by inferring that IPA manufacturers, managers and vendors could extend their revenue streams by integrating product features that capture emotion.

Financial services industry is increasingly showing interest in automated financial advisors, or robo-advisors, with the aim of democratizing access to financial advice and stimulating investment behavior among populations that were previously less active and less served. However, the extent to which consumers trust this technology influences the adoption of rob-advisors. The resemblance to a human, or anthropomorphism, can provide a sense of social presence and increase trust.

In this paper, we conduct an experiment (N = 223) to test the effect of anthropomorphism (low vs medium vs high) and gender (male vs female) of the robo-advisor on social presence. This perception, in turn, enables consumers to evaluate personality characteristics of the robo-advisor, such as competence, warmth, and persuasiveness, all of which are related to trust in the robo-advisor. We separately conduct an experimental study (N = 206) testing the effect of gender neutrality on consumer responses to robo-advisory anthropomorphism.

Our results show that consumers prefer human-alike robo-advisors over machinelike or humanoid robo-advisors. This preference is only observed for male robo-advisors and is explained by perceived competence and perceived persuasiveness. Furthermore, highlighting gender neutrality undermines the positive effect of robo-advisor anthropomorphism on trust.

We contribute to the body of knowledge on robo-advisor design by showing the effect of robot’s anthropomorphism and gender on consumer perceptions and trust. Consequently, we offer insightful recommendations to promote the adoption of robo-advisory services in the financial sector.

Voice assistants (VAs) empower human–computer interactions by recognising human speech and implementing commands pronounced by users. This paper aims to investigate VA-enabled interactions between hotels and guests in the hospitality context. The research positions VAs within the artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) context, disrupting old practices and processes. Smart hospitality uses VAs to support effortless value cocreation for guests cost-effectively. The research examines consumer perceptions and expectations of hospitality VAs and explores VA capabilities through expert technology providers.

This empirical paper investigates the current use and future implications of VAs for hotel environments. It uses qualitative, semi-structured in-depth interviews with 7 expert hospitality VA technology providers and 21 hotel guests who have VA experience. The research adopts a demand and supply approach, addressing the VAs in hospitality holistically.

The findings illustrate the requirements from both end-users’ sides, hotels and guests, exploring VA advantages and challenges. The analysis demonstrates that VAs increasingly become digital assistants. VA technology helps hotels to improve customer service, expand operational capability and reduce costs. Although in its infancy, VA technology has made progress towards optimising hotel operations and upgrading customer service. The study proposes a speech-enabled interactions model.

This research stimulates the transformation of hospitality services by using VAs and the development of smart hospitality and tourism ecosystems. The study can benefit from further research with hotel managers, to reflect hoteliers’ points of view and investigate their perception of VAs. Further research can also explore different aspects of consumer–VA interaction in different contexts.

The paper makes a significant contribution to hospitality management and human–computer interaction best practices. It supports technology providers to reconsider how to develop suitable technology solutions towards improving their strategic competitiveness. It also explains how to use VAs cost-effectively and profitably while adding value to travellers’ experience.

VA studies are often focussed on the technology in private households, rather than in commercial or hotel spaces. This paper contributes to the emerging literature on AI and IoT in smart hospitality and explores the acceptance and operationalisation of VAs. The research contributes to the conceptualisation of VA-enabled hotel services and explores positive and negative features, as well as future prospects.

语音（数码, 虚拟或者人工智能）(VAs) 助理能够识别真人声音和系统指令声音从而为人机互动提供助力。 本研究基于酒店业已有的案例探索了酒店和客人语言支持的互动的本质。本研究探索了关于客房服务的表现和实用性的顾客认知和顾客期望。

本研究借用了定性半结构化深入访谈来收集一手数据, 调查了酒店环境中的语音助理目前的运用情况和未来影响。本研究访谈了7位酒店科技服务提供者和21位有使用个人智能扬声器经验的酒店客人。本研究以供需模型来全方位解决此项问题。

研究结论强调了从双方使用者（酒店和客人）角度考量, 并且考虑到语音仪器带来的所有的优势和挑战的重要性。基于顾客之前对这些仪器的使用经验, 本论文深入阐述了对公共空间这些语音助理的使用功能。本分析证明了由AI技术支持下, VAs 可以灵活的识别语音。VAs理解词汇内容并且也懂得词汇作为数据助手来支持智能家庭的自动化以及履行商业职责背后的意义来。酒店从业人员可以尝试运用此科技来提高用户体验, 扩展运营空间和减少成本。从访谈的数据可以证明, 尽管还在初级阶段, VAs 科技已经对酒店运营优化和晋级客户服务做出了显著的贡献和成就。本研究提出了一项介于酒店和客人之间的VA 语言支持的互动模型。

之前的研究主要针对私人使用, 而不是商业或者酒店空间。考虑到敌对环境和客人和酒店的文化差异, 旅游和酒店成为了尤其有挑战性的领域。本研究通过语音识别革新了酒店服务。本研究针对VAs接受程度和运用进行详细研究从而为酒店领域的AI和IoT提供了专业文献。本文为酒店服务中的VAs使用做出了开拓性的调查并且探讨了正面以及负面的特征和未来展望。

本研究为酒店和旅游管理补充了文献, 尤其是在酒店业人机互动领域。本研究通过语音识别技术对酒店服务的转型革新做出贡献。此项研究可以受益于以酒店管理者为视角的进一步研究。相比于收集科技设备供应方的见解, 对酒店管理者进行访谈可以提供更直接的信息来了解酒店员工对数码语音助理和对语音科技的总体接受程度。

酒店经常寻求途径来提高和客户的互动。本论文对酒店管理和人机互动领域提供了应用典例。本研究提供了酒店客人针对语音设备功能性的总体评价作为有价值的信息, 进而帮助科技提供者来重新审视针对顾客需要从而量身定制服务的策略和方式。最终, 本研究在提高行业战略竞争力层面分享了关于发展和采用此项强大有力科技的见解。

This research examines whether anthropomorphizing artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots alters consumers' risk preferences toward financial investment options involving differential risks.

An experimental approach has been adopted with three studies, all featuring a between-subjects design.

Through three studies, the findings document that, in a financial decision-making context, anthropomorphizing AI leads to significantly greater risk aversion in investment decision-making (Study 1). This occurs because AI-enabled chatbot anthropomorphization activates greater psychological risk attachment, which enacts consumers to manifest stronger risk aversion tendency (Studies 2 and 3).

Anthropomorphizing AI has undeniable relevance in the contemporary marketing landscape, such as humanoid robotics and emotion AI algorithms. Despite of anthropomorphism's significance and relevance, the downstream impact of anthropomorphism remains unfortunately underexplored.

An original systematic review of the academic literature on applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in the human resource management (HRM) domain is carried out to capture the current state-of-the-art and prepare an original research agenda for future studies.

Fifty-nine journal articles are selected based on a holistic search and quality evaluation criteria. By using content analysis and structural concept analysis, this study elucidates the extent and impact of AI application in HRM functions, which is followed by synthesizing a concept map that illustrates how the usage of various AI techniques aids HRM decision-making.

A comprehensive review of the AI-HRM domain’s existing literature is presented. A concept map is synthesized to present a taxonomical overview of the AI applications in HRM.

An original research agenda comprising relevant research questions is put forward to assist further developments in the AI-HRM domain. An indicative preliminary framework to help transition toward ethical AI is also presented.

This study contributes to the literature through a holistic discussion on the current state of the domain, the extent of AI application in HRM, and its current and perceived future impact on HRM functions. A preliminary ethical framework and an extensive future research agenda are developed to open new research avenues.

This study aims to investigate the customers’ behavioral intention and actual usage (AUE) of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbots for hospitality and tourism in India by extending the technology adoption model (TAM) with context-specific variables.

To understand the customers’ behavioral intention and AUE of AI-powered chatbots for tourism, the mixed-method design was used whereby qualitative and quantitative techniques were combined. A total of 36 senior managers and executives from the travel agencies were interviewed and the analysis of interview data was done using NVivo 8.0 software. A total of 1,480 customers were surveyed and the partial least squares structural equation modeling technique was used for data analysis.

As per the results, the predictors of chatbot adoption intention (AIN) are perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived trust (PTR), perceived intelligence (PNT) and anthropomorphism (ANM). Technological anxiety (TXN) does not influence the chatbot AIN. Stickiness to traditional human travel agents negatively moderates the relation of AIN and AUE of chatbots in tourism and provides deeper insights into manager’s commitment to providing travel planning services using AI-based chatbots.

This research presents unique practical insights to the practitioners, managers and executives in the tourism industry, system designers and developers of AI-based chatbot technologies to understand the antecedents of chatbot adoption by travelers. TXN is a vital concern for the customers; so, designers and developers should ensure that chatbots are easily accessible, have a user-friendly interface, be more human-like and communicate in various native languages with the customers.

This study contributes theoretically by extending the TAM to provide better explanatory power with human–robot interaction context-specific constructs – PTR, PNT, ANM and TXN – to examine the customers’ chatbot AIN. This is the first step in the direction to empirically test and validate a theoretical model for chatbots’ adoption and usage, which is a disruptive technology in the hospitality and tourism sector in an emerging economy such as India.