Discovering meaningful engagement through interaction between customers and service robots

ABSTRACT

Although service robots are causing a paradigm shift in the service industry by creating new interactions with customers, there is limited knowledge regarding which elements of service robots create desirable interactions with customers. To address this gap, this study invited situated action theory to investigate elements of service robots shaping customers’ meaningful engagement. 252 responses from the survey were analyzed. These revealed that some socio-functional elements are primary for meaningful engagement by affecting both experiential and instrumental outcomes, whereas others are salient for either one of the outcomes. Our analysis also examined personal innovativeness and viability of human–robot team pertaining to meaningful engagement. This study contributes to the literature by identifying socio-functional elements of service robots and exploring how they create meaningful engagement. It also provides practical implications to service companies, demonstrating critical elements of service robots for enhancing their service quality and for developing robot-driven service environments.

尽管服务机器人通过与顾客创造新的互动引领着服务行业的范式转变，但关于服务机器人与顾客理想互动的影响因素的研究仍然有限。为了弥补这一差距，本研究借鉴情境行动理论来探索服务机器人在顾客深度参与过程中所起的作用。本研究对调查问卷的252份有效回复进行了分析。研究结果表明，社会功能因素通过影响经验性和工具性结果，在深度参与中起着主要作用。相比之下，其他要素在这两种结果上的影响都非常突出。我们的分析还检验了人机团队在深度参与方面的个人创新性和可行性。这项研究通过识别服务机器人的社会功能要素和探索它们如何创造顾客深度参与为相关领域做出贡献。此外，本研究还为服务行业提供了实践启示。它揭示了利用服务机器人提高服务质量和开发以机器人驱动的服务环境方面的关键要素。

KEYWORDS:

• Service robot
• meaningful engagement
• situated action theory
• customer-centered approach

关键词:

• 服务机器人
• 深度参与
• 情境行动理论
• 顾客中心化方法

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 72172013], [grant number 72110107003].