Search results

Purpose: This paper presents a review of the current state and potential capabilities for application of robots, artificial intelligence and automated services (RAISA) in hotel companies.

Design/methodology/approach: A two-step approach was applied in this study. First, the authors make a theoretical overview of the robots, artificial intelligence and service automation (RAISA) in hotels. Second, the authors make a detailed overview of various case studies from global hotel practice.

Findings: The application of RAISA in hotel companies is examined in connection with the impact that technology has on guest experience during each of the five stages of the guest cycle: pre-arrival, arrival, stay, departure, assessment.

Research implications: Its implications can be searched with respect to future research. It deals with topics such as how different generations (guests and employees) perceive RAISA in the hotel industry and what is the attitude of guests in different categories of hotels (luxury and economy) towards the use of RAISA. It also shows what is the attitude of different types of tourists (holiday, business, health, cultural, etc.) and what kinds of robots (androids or machines) are more appropriate for different types of hotel operations.

Practical implications: The implications are related to the improvement of operations and operational management, marketing and sales, enhancement of customer experience and service innovation, training and management.

Originality/value: This book chapter complements and expands research on the role of RAISA in the hotel industry and makes some projections about the use of technologies in the future.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to conduct a critical literature review that examines the origins and development of research on service robots in organizations, as well as the key emotional and cognitive issues between service employees, customers, and robots. This review provides a foundation for future research that leverages the emotional connection between service robots and humans.

Design/Methodology/Approach – A critical literature review that examines robotics, artificial intelligence, emotions, approach/avoid behavior, and cognitive biases is conducted.

Findings – This research provides six key themes that emerge from the current state of research in the field of service robotics with 14 accompanying research questions forming the basis of a research agenda. The themes presented are as follows: Theme 1: Employees have a forgotten “dual role”; Theme 2: The influence of groups is neglected; Theme 3: Opposing emotions lead to uncertain outcomes; Theme 4: We know how robots influence engagement, but not experience; Theme 5: Trust is necessary but poorly understood; and Theme 6: Bias is contagious: if the human mind is irrational…so too are robot minds.

Practical Implications – Practically, this research provides guidance for researchers and practitioners alike regarding the current state of research, gaps, and future directions. Importantly for practitioners, it sheds light on themes in the use of AI and robotics in services, highlighting opportunities to consider the dual role of the employee, examines how incorporating a service robot influences all levels of the organization, addresses motivational conflicts for employees and customers, explores how service robots influence the whole customer experience and how trust is formed, and how we are (often inadvertently) creating biased robots.

Anthropomorphism in Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered devices is being used increasingly frequently in consumer-facing situations (e.g., AI Assistants such as Alexa, virtual agents in websites, call/chat bots, etc.), and therefore, it is essential to understand anthropomorphism in AI both to understand consequences for consumers and to optimize firms' product development and marketing. Extant literature is fragmented across several domains and is limited in the marketing domain. In this review, we aim to bring together the insights from different fields and develop a parsimonious conceptual framework to guide future research in fields of marketing and consumer behavior.

We conduct a review of empirical articles published until November 2021 in Financial Times Top 50 (FT50) journals as well as in 41 additional journals selected across several disciplinary domains: computer science, robotics, psychology, marketing, and consumer behavior.

Based on literature review and synthesis, we propose a three-step guiding framework for future research and practice on AI anthropomorphism.

Our proposed conceptual framework informs marketing and consumer behavior domains with findings accumulated in other research domains, offers important directions for future research, and provides a parsimonious guide for marketing managers to optimally utilize anthropomorphism in AI to the benefit of both firms and consumers.

We contribute to the emerging literature on anthropomorphism in AI in three ways. First, we expedite the information flow between disciplines by integrating insights from different fields of inquiry. Second, based on our synthesis of literature, we offer a conceptual framework to organize the outcomes of AI anthropomorphism in a tidy and concise manner. Third, based on our review and conceptual framework, we offer key directions to guide future research endeavors.

The gastronomy industry is one of the industries in which consumers use technology most frequently, such as robotics, artificial intelligence and automation systems. Service robots are generally defined as online programs that can act independently or under the control of a human that can carry human characteristics such as speaking, understanding and acting. This study aims to examine and evaluate the studies on service robots in the gastronomy industry regarding quantity or quality, to understand the phenomenon more comprehensively, and to determine a holistic perspective. To this end, a qualitative research approach was adopted. Document technique was used to collect data within a systematic literature review framework, and the data were analysed by descriptive analysis. According to the findings, the papers on service robots in the gastronomy industry are still in their infancy, and these studies have increasingly gained speed in the last five years.

• Service robots (SRs) in retail is an emerging topic for both scholars and practitioners.

• Most of the studies are performed in the field using observational methods.

• To date, there is a lack of using uniform frameworks in order to fully understand customer–robot interactions.

• The dark side of robots in retail is still an underexplored area.

Service robots (SRs) in retail is an emerging topic for both scholars and practitioners.

Most of the studies are performed in the field using observational methods.

To date, there is a lack of using uniform frameworks in order to fully understand customer–robot interactions.

The dark side of robots in retail is still an underexplored area.

Purpose: The purpose of this chapter is to elaborate on the major conceptual and practical considerations of the use of robots, artificial intelligence and service automation (RAISA) in travel, tourism, and hospitality companies (TTH).

Design/methodology/approach: The chapter develops a conceptual framework of the major issues related to the use of RAISA in the travel, tourism and hospitality context.

Findings: The findings indicate that while there is a creeping incursion of RAISA into TTH, there are major concerns that the TTH industry has to consider in regard to automating TTH services.

Practical implications: In a practical sense, the chapter identifies the decisions that TTH industry professionals need to take when dealing with RAISA technologies. Furthermore, the chapter elaborates on the impacts RAISA have on business operations, marketing management, human resources and financial management of TTH companies. The TTH industry has to adjust its practices and communicate with its workforce in ways as not to increase Luddite tendencies and resistance among employees.

Social implications: The analysis shows that there is an upcoming era in which automation of services will be so advanced that wealthy countries may not need to import labour to make up with its own aging workforce, suggesting that RAISA and its further development has the potential for disrupting society and international relations.

Originality/value: This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the issues related to the use of RAISA in the TTH industry, including the drivers of RAISA adoption in tourism, advantages and disadvantages of RAISA technologies compared to human employees, decisions that managers need to take, and the impacts of RAISA on business processes. It shows how macroenvironmental pressures shape the microeconomic decisions to use RAISA in a TTH context.

Purpose: The goal of the chapter is to define customer attitudes towards robots in travel, tourism and hospitality (TTH) and to analyse their most significant characteristics.

Design/methodology/approach: The book chapter develops a conceptual framework of attitudes towards robots in travel, tourism and hospitality, based on critical analysis of relevant publications.

Findings: The chapter provides a definition and discussion of the characteristics of customer attitudes towards robots in TTH. It elaborates the structural elements of attitudes towards robots, and the links and interactions between the elements.

Research limitations: Research limitations stem from the small number of studies on customer attitudes towards robots in TTH.

Practical implications: The theoretical analysis can be used as a starting point for empirical studies of customer attitudes towards robots in travel, tourism and hospitality.

Social implication: Combined services, based on human employee-service robot collaboration, are the optimal decision for forming favourable customer attitudes towards robotisation and automation in tourism and hospitality. In that way clients’ needs of high technological convenience, interpersonal communication and socialisation are met simultaneously.

Originality/value: This research is among the few publications that study customer attitudes towards robots in travel, tourism and hospitality. The authors develop a matrix of users’ attitudes and behaviours when using robots in travel, tourism and hospitality.

Purpose: The research investigates the presence of technology ideologies in consumer discourse on tourism and hospitality robots.

Design/methodology/approach: Using a netnographic approach, the research involved immersion in online discourses and collection of consumer posts from a variety of social media platforms. Data was subjected to a thematic analysis informed by the technology ideology framework described in the literature review.

Findings: Online consumer narratives about tourism and hospitality robots are dynamic and varied and reveal a multitude of technology ideology-related positions. The research confirms the applicability of the technology ideology framework to online discourses on service robots and finds that anthropomorphism triggers additional concerns.

Research implications: The findings suggest that future research on the acceptance and use of service robots should go beyond psychological concepts.

Practical implications: Without uncovering and understanding technology sensemaking processes with respect to service robots, the introduction of service robots in hospitality and tourism might trigger consumer resistance or lead to inferior service experiences.

Social implications: The research suggests that sensemaking of technology, specifically service robots, is complex and colored by pertinent ideologies. Policies and regulations regarding service robot adoption and implementation should consider these various positions.

Originality/value: The paper introduces technology sensemaking and technology ideology as important theoretical frameworks to understand consumer perceptions, attitudes, uses and relationships in regard to service robots in hospitality and tourism contexts.