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This study investigated the linkage between customers’ acceptance (CA) level and smart service competencies in the food sector across Penang, Malaysia. This research aims to develop a vision of how smart technology may transform the business model in hospitality industry to create value.

In this study, the level of CA of the smart restaurant is proposed as the dependent variable, while the perceived security (PS), perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived enjoyment (PE) are proposed as independent variables (IVs). The quantitative approach and simple random sampling method were adopted in this study. Data were collected from 150 respondents by distributing 225 survey questionnaires to restaurant customers across Penang, Malaysia. The data were analysed by the reliability test, factor analysis and multiple regression analysis using SPSS 23.0 software

The study outcomes indicated that PE and PEOU emerged as the most significant predictors for CA of smart services in restuarants in Penang. The smart services provide customers to experience enjoyable dining services with accurate and user-friendly service delivery.

This study may serve as a guideline for food and beverage (F&B) business owners and restaurant operators with an industrial standard to adopt smart services in restaurants and their progression to develop the intention to use such a novel technology. This research is one of the few attempts that have looked into the influences of hedonic, comfortable and security value on customers’ acceptance level of smart restaurant services.

Have you been to a smart restaurant, and how were its services? A common limitation of hospitality studies stems from the lack of research on how service quality is shaped within smart technology. This study aims to fill this literature void not merely to reiterate the importance of technology but also to recast service quality through the lens of information technology. It synthesizes the 5-S model of smart service quality (AKA SSQ) as a new conceptualization of service quality application in smart hospitality contexts such as smart restaurants.

This study undertook a qualitative research design based on theoretical synthesis from service quality, information technology and attention restoration. Drawing from online review comments and semistructured interviews from smart restaurants, the authors improvised the SSQ model to identify the essence of smart service in smart dining establishments.

“5-S” reflects an extension of the literature to denote a new SSQ abstraction pertinent to s-servicescape, s-assurance, s-responsiveness, s-reliability and s-empathy. A nomological network was posited to better understand the importance of smart design and consequence of SSQ.

The emergence of smart dining gives rise to smart restaurants, which puts technology at center stage. As consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable with self-service technology, auto-payment and ordering systems and robotic services, technology in foodservice will continue to play an essential role to better serve diners. Geared with advanced innovations and intelligent devices, smart restaurants are now more than mere eateries. It is a trend and a lifestyle.

This novel SSQ concept adds new nuances to the literature by acknowledging the technological essence in today’s hospitality industry. By integrating smart technology into the service quality paradigm, the authors are able to observe several interesting behaviors exhibited during smart dining, including tech-induced restoration, which opens a new avenue to understand how attention restoration could be attained through immersion in a technologically advanced setting. By synthesizing theoretical essence from service quality, attention restoration and information technology, the authors are able to create a new dialog that should warrant a forum of discussion in future studies.

The use of modern technologies in restaurants has become a trend. For food and beverage services, embracing new technologies helps solve the dilemmas of increasing labor costs and the high level of staff turnover in the industry. However, knowledge regarding how consumers perceive and evaluate technology-assisted dining experiences (TADEs) is limited. This study aims to conceptualize and operationalize TADEs while considering increasing technological applications in restaurants.

This study conducted in-depth interviews with 71 restaurant consumers in Nanjing and Wuhan, China. Following the interviews, this study carried out a survey and identified the factor structure of TADEs.

The in-depth interviews identified 26 attributes of TADEs. An analysis of the survey data identified four important aspects (with 21 items) of TADEs, namely, novelty and fashion, convenience, high efficiency and restrictions and possible risks.

Hospitality managers can implement the suggested measures for dining service design and technology management to improve the experiences of customers.

These findings have theoretical implications for the new phenomenon of technology-integrated dining, the application of technology and consumer management in the catering industry.

This paper aims to answer questions pertinent to whether or not services provided by smart hotels are really what customers are looking for, as well as to ascertain what are some unintended experiences guests may encounter. In essence, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first in the field to acknowledge the paradox of smart service.

This inquiry adopts a qualitative approach with data-driven from online customer reviews and semistructured interviews. Thematic analysis was undertaken to interpret review comments.

Results point to a new phenomenon, which is coined as the smartness paradox. In particular, customers on one hand enjoy an array of smart-infused experiences that jointly offer patrons a sense of a futuristic lifestyle. On the other hand, smart devices superimpose a number of hindrances that bring guests dismay and annoyance.

This investigation brings smart service failure to the fore to highlight several key failure themes that could jeopardize the entire operation with debased customers’ satisfaction and loyalty inclination.

The smartness-paradox framework used in the present inquiry entails both approach and avoidance consequences customers enact depending on their smart experiences.

While the rise of chain restaurants has attracted increasing research interest, few studies have taken servicescape into consideration to examine its effects on transformative service outcomes. This study aims to assess how social service elements can provide customers with restorative qualities, though social components are considered vital in constituting a dining locale's servicescape (AKA Social Servicescape).

The study fills the void above by undertaking a survey-based quantitative research method. Using online surveys with a sample of 306 diners, the study employed structural equation modeling to explore a proposed moderated mediation model. A post-hoc interview followed to provide qualitative data to complement the findings developed from surveys.

Results first point to a positive relationship between social servicescape and attention restoration. Moreover, the authors unveil that substantive servicescape has a moderating effect on the relationship of interest, suggesting the interplay of social and built servicescape in promoting restorative experiences.

Social and built stimuli can be intertwined to offer restorative qualities for customers. Through such an intertwined network of relationships, one may derive better mental health resources from hospitality settings.

This research presents new nuances to the existing field of inquiry by linking social servicescape and restoration through an intertwined network of attentional recovery.

This study aims to explore the moderating outcomes of mobile promotions in three parts. First, Study 1 is conducted to discover the moderating effect of mobile promotions when consumers initially purchase a restaurant service. Second, Study 2 investigates how the promotion level during subsequent purchasing events moderates the relationship between attitudes toward selecting a restaurant brand (ATRB) and repurchase intentions. Third, the study compares mobile promotion effects between the initial purchase stage and subsequent purchase state.

Two studies are conducted to test the hypotheses. Using a longitudinal survey, Study 1 demonstrates the moderating role of mobile promotions (M-promotions) during the initial restaurant choice stage (T). Study 2 extends these findings to the reordering stage (T+1).

The results of Study 1 show that price discounts are much more impactful than free delivery when food quality and online reviews are positive. Study 2 shows that price discounts have more substantial effects than gifts at time T+1 when ATRB is positive. The findings are relevant to both scholars and managers, adding insights to discussions on promotions arising from the evolution of consumption experiences.

Promotions differ in financial value; hence, comparisons of promotional packages may vary during subsequent purchase states, helping to explain subsequent promotion stages and enabling scholars to understand their impact on the food reordering context.

The fact that no empirical studies have examined the roles of M-promotions during subsequent purchasing stages constitutes a significant gap in extant promotion research. Therefore, this study seeks to fill this gap by providing robust evidence to demonstrate these effects and related temporal mechanisms. Additionally, although the literature on promotion is used mostly in cross-sectional studies, this study addresses a common challenge to reveal dynamics of promotion levels during subsequent consumption periods.

Explore how the degree of humanization affects user misconduct, and provide effective misconduct prevention measures for the wide application of artificial intelligence in the future.

Based on the “Uncanny Valley theory”, three experiments were conducted to explore the relationship between the degree of humanization of service machines and user misbehavior, and to analyze the mediating role of cognitive resistance and the moderating role of social class.

There is a U-shaped relationship between the degree of humanization of service machines and user misbehavior; Social class not only regulates the main effect of anthropomorphism on misbehavior, but also regulates the intermediary effect of anthropomorphism on cognitive resistance, thus affecting misbehavior.

The design of the service robot can be from the user’s point of view, combined with the user’s social class, match different user types, and provide the same preferences as the user’s humanoid service robot.

This study is an important reference value for enterprises and governments to provide intelligent services in public places. It can prevent the robot from being vandalized and also provide users with a comfortable human-computer interaction experience, expanding the positive effects of providing smart services by government and enterprises.

This study avoids and reduces users' misbehavior towards intelligent service robots, improves users' satisfaction in using service robots, and avoids service robots being damaged, resulting in waste of government, enterprise and social resources.

From the perspective of product factors to identify the inducing factors of improper behavior, from the perspective of social class of users to analyze the moderating effect of humanization degree and user improper behavior.

Using cognitive appraisal theory, this study aims to propose and test an integrated framework – comprising robotic service quality, robotic service authenticity, customer existential authenticity and customer revisit intention – on diners with experience using robotic technology in restaurants. The moderating role of robotic appearance is in the hypothesised relationship.

Data was gathered through a Web-based survey delivered to 428 diners who had experience using robotic services in restaurants in China. The hypotheses were analysed using a structural equation model and multi-group analysis was used to analyse the moderating effect.

The findings indicate that functional service quality positively influences robotic service authenticity and existential authenticity. However, technical service quality only affects existential authenticity, which leads to revisit intention. Robotic appearance moderated the relationship between functional service quality and service authenticity.

Restaurateurs should enhance robotic service authenticity, existential authenticity and revisit intention by improving robotic technical service collaborating with robot manufacturers and operators.

Focusing on cognitive appraisal theory, the findings serve as a starting point for investigating robotic service quality and authenticity in robotic service settings theoretically and empirically.

Metaverse blends the physical and virtual worlds, revolutionizing how hospitality customers and hospitality organizations facilitate the co-creation of transformational experiences and values. This paper aims to explore the opportunities and challenges that Metaverse introduces for hospitality and tourism management and marketing as part of the customer experience and value co-creation process. This paper also discusses how the advent and development of Metaverse can potentially transform hospitality customer experience and value co-creation.

A comprehensive literature review was undertaken to explore conceptual developments on Metaverse and best practice examples from around the world.

Metaverse not only opens many exciting opportunities for hospitality and tourism but also poses some great challenges. Hospitality and tourism organizations need to use the Metaverse strategically to customize and co-create hybrid virtual and physical experiences, allowing consumers to engage with them and also with other customers before, during and after their visit. A range of research opportunities also emerge for the adoption and operationalization of Metaverse.

This paper critically analyzes the early applications of Metaverse in hospitality and tourism as well as promotes future solutions for hospitality and tourism management and marketing. The conceptual model in this study can help different stakeholders better understand the flow, logic and potential of Metaverse in the hospitality and tourism industry.

The paper defines and conceptualizes the potential of Metaverse in hospitality customer experience and value co-creation. Besides putting forward a research agenda for further exploiting the full potential for both hospitality customers and hospitality organizations, this paper elucidates the impacts of Metaverse on hospitality management, rooted in the previous literature in value co-creation and technology-enhanced experience.

The purpose of this research is to provide a critical discussion illustrating how novel business models can be developed using advanced information technology (IT) to overcome the effects of the labor shortage crisis and bring the industry back to the pre-pandemic performance benchmarks.

The methodology of this research is based on a thorough literature review of academic and trade publications, guided by an analytic approach that comprehensively discusses the multiple facets of digitizing the human-intensive legacy hospitality business models.

While broad in terms of multiple metrics, the hospitality industry has demonstrated an ability to incorporate IT-based business models within its legacy processes. The current hospitality context, corroborated with the lingering effects of the pandemic, requires the hospitality industry to address two important issues: chronic shortage of staff and unpredictable levels of performance of existing staff.

This research discusses a human–resource crisis from an IT point of view and articulates several IT-based strategic solutions that should help hospitality organizations mitigate the effects of this crisis.