To serve and protect: a typology of service robots and their role in physically safe services (original) (raw)
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Brave new world: service robots in the frontline
Journal of Service Management, 2018
Purpose The service sector is at an inflection point with regard to productivity gains and service industrialization similar to the industrial revolution in manufacturing that started in the eighteenth century. Robotics in combination with rapidly improving technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), mobile, cloud, big data and biometrics will bring opportunities for a wide range of innovations that have the potential to dramatically change service industries. The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential role service robots will play in the future and to advance a research agenda for service researchers. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses a conceptual approach that is rooted in the service, robotics and AI literature. Findings The contribution of this paper is threefold. First, it provides a definition of service robots, describes their key attributes, contrasts their features and capabilities with those of frontline employees, and provides an understanding for...
Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 2020
Purpose – Robots are predicted to have a profound impact on the service sector. The emergence of robots has attracted increasing interest from business scholars and practitioners alike. In this article, we undertake a systematic review of the business literature about the impact of service robots on customers and employees with the objective of guiding future research. Design/methodology/approach – We analyzed the literature on service robots as they relate to customers and employees in business journals listed in the Financial Times top 50 journals plus all journals covered in the cross-disciplinary SERVSIG literature alerts. Findings – The analysis of the identified studies yielded multiple observations about the impact of service robots on customers (e.g., overarching frameworks on acceptance and usage of service robots; characteristics of service robots and anthropomorphism; and potential for enhanced and deteriorated service experiences) and service employees (e.g., employee benefits such as reduced routine work, enhanced productivity and job satisfaction; potential negative consequences such as loss of autonomy and a range of negative psychological outcomes; opportunities for human-robot collaboration; job insecurity; and robot-related upskilling and development requirements). We also conclude that current research on service robots is fragmented, is largely conceptual in nature, and focused on the initial adoption stage. We feel that more research is needed to build an overarching theory. In addition, more empirical research is needed, especially on the long(er)-term usage service robots on actual behaviors, the well-being, and potential downsides and (ethical) risks for customers and service employees. Research limitations – Our review focused on the business and service literature. Future work may want to include additional literature streams, including those in computer science, engineering, and information systems. Originality/value – This article is the first to synthesize the business and service literature on the impact of service robots on customers and employees.
Service Robots & Their Implications for Service Delivery
A Research Agenda for Service Marketing, 2024
This chapter illustrates the new service reality induced by innovative technology. For this, we highlight the difference between older automated self-service technologies and service robots. Further, we analyze the difference between human service employees and service robots and show avenues for collaboration and specialization in the Service Robot Deployment Model. Additionally, we also discuss the challenges of AI-based service robot deployment and relate them to the concept of corporate digital responsibility (CDR). Finally, we close with managerial implications for the service frontline in the new service reality with robots.
Service robot implementation: a theoretical framework and research agenda
THE SERVICE INDUSTRIES JOURNAL, 2019
Service robots and artificial intelligence promise to increase productivity and reduce costs, prompting substantial growth in sales of service robots and research dedicated to understanding their implications. Nevertheless, marketing research on this phenomenon is scarce. To establish some fundamental insights related to this research domain, the current article seeks to complement research on robots’ human-likeness with investigations of the factors that service managers must choose for the service robots implemented in their service setting. A three-part framework, comprised of robot design, customer features, and service encounter characteristics, specifies key factors within each category that need to be analyzed together to determine their optimal adaptation to different service components. Definitions and overlapping concepts are clarified, together with previous knowledge on each variable and research gaps that need to be solved. This framework and the final research questions provide a research agenda to guide scholars and help practitioners implement service robots successfully.
Research Handbook on Services Management, 2022
Book Chapter: Due to the infusion of artificial intelligence, service robots are on the rise. In this chapter the authors provide examples of how the service industry can benefit from the implementation of robots at the organizational frontline. Thereby, they distinguish service robots from well-established self-service technologies and compare human service representatives with service robots. The Service Robot Deployment Model is a framework that can be used to outline service tasks which can be better performed by robots, humans or hybrid teams. To highlight the role of service robots the authors provide a case study on AI in financial services and conclude the chapter by providing managerial implications for service robot’s usage in service organizations.
Service robotics: do you know your new companion? Framing an interdisciplinary technology assessment
Poiesis & Praxis, 2011
Service-Robotic-mainly defined as "non-industrial robotics"-is identified as the next economical success story to be expected after robots have been ubiquitously implemented into industrial production lines. Under the heading of service-robotic, we found a widespread area of applications reaching from robotics in agriculture and in the public transportation system to service robots applied in private homes. We propose for our interdisciplinary perspective of technology assessment to take the human user/worker as common focus. In some cases, the user/worker is the effective subject acting by means of and in cooperation with a service robot; in other cases, the user/worker might become a pure object of the respective robotic system, for example, as a patient in a hospital. In this paper, we present a comprehensive interdisciplinary framework, which allows us to scrutinize some of the most relevant applications of service robotics; we propose to combine technical, economical, legal, philosophical/ethical, and psychological perspectives in order to design a thorough and comprehensive expert-based technology assessment. This allows us to understand the potentials as well as the limits and even the threats connected with the ongoing and the planned implementation of service robots into human lifeworld-particularly of those technical systems displaying increasing grades of autonomy. 1 Background Industrial robots are established in nearly all areas of the manufacturing industry. The automotive industry, just like metalworking, plastics, rubber, timber, and
The autonomy-safety-paradox of service robotics in Europe and Japan: a comparative analysis
Service and personal care robots are starting to cross the threshold into the wilderness of everyday life, where they are supposed to interact with inexperienced lay users in a changing environment. In order to function as intended, robots must become independent entities that monitor themselves and improve their own behaviours based on learning outcomes in practice. This poses a great challenge to robotics, which we are calling the ‘‘autonomysafety- paradox’’ (ASP). The integration of robot applications into society requires the reconciliation of two conflicting aspects: increasing machine autonomy and ensuring safety in end-use. As the level of robot autonomy grows, the risk of accidents will increase, and it will become more and more difficult to identify who is responsible for any damage incurred. However, emphasizing safety impairs the autonomous functioning of the robot. This problem implies the need for a broadened concept of product safety. Our comparative study shows that the institutional framing of the ASP as well as concrete solutions to this problem differs between Europe and Japan in two respects: (1) the understanding of robot agency and (2) the concept of ‘‘appropriate’’ user–robot interaction.
Service robots on their way? First steps of an interdisciplinary technology assessment
Poiesis & Praxis, 2012
Interdisciplinary research calls together different scientific disciplines in order to answer a research question which cannot be answered by an individual discipline alone. Technology Assessment (TA) is a problem-oriented approach (Bechmann and Frederichs 1996) dealing with the non-technical aspects of technology development, in order to gain knowledge about the (un-)intended consequences, the (un-)desired impacts, the main and side-effects and the chances and risks of (new) technologies. Moreover, by applying TA, scientists can develop potential solutions to solve societal or political problems related to, for example, the ''grand challenges'' such as ''feeding 10 billion people,'' demographic change, global health. These societal problems need to be reframed or transformed into research questions to be dealt with by interdisciplinary research. Which scientific disciplines are invited to participate in an interdisciplinary research project is defined with respect to these research questions, namely those which are identified as to be relevant to answer them. Therefore, framing the problems and developing research questions out of it becomes the key for any interdisciplinary project (Decker 2001). For the interdisciplinary TA project on service robotics, to which the papers of this focus contribute, the problem setting and the identification of the relevant disciplines were described elsewhere (Decker et al. 2011; Decker 2012). Since the project aims for a TA of service robotics on a general level (even though referring to case studies for illustration), the relevant disciplines include economics, ethics, jurisprudence and psychology of work. While the first three are traditionally part of an
Does COVID-19 Drive Robot Acceptance? An Exploratory Study of Service Robot in Hospitality
Tourism and hospitality management
Purpose – The purpose of this study is to explore the acceptance of robots as social distancing agents and to understand how guests may respond to the application of service robots in a hospitality setting as a way to achieve a zero-COVID-19 travel experience. This study contributes to the current knowledge in the area of service robot application by providing a better insight of, and guests response to, service robot operation in hotels. Design/Methodology/Approach – To obtain information from participants, the semi-structured interview method was used. articipants were hotel guests who had stayed in hotels where robots performed human tasks. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings – The findings suggest that robots are perceived as effective social distancing agents even though the participants experienced instances of robot incompetency during their stay at a hotel with robotics-based services. Participants also believe that with improved smart robot services, hotels...
Frontline service delivery ::the usage of a robot
2021
The objective of this study was to improve the customer experience by focusing on the impact of avatar concierge solution which can be controlled and moved by a human agent with gestures in distance. We want to tend and apply the technology acceptance model (TAM) to service robots designed for improving the customer experience