Do We Think and Feel Alike? Field Evidence on Developing a Shared Reality when dealing with Service Robots
Forum of Ideas | Mark Steins
Date: Tuesday 30 April
Workshop: 10am-11am
Location: QUT Gardens Point
Event Details
Speaker Details
Mark Steins
At our recent Forum for Ideas, Mark presented on service robot research, highlighting that dyadic customer–service provider interactions do not occur in isolation but have not yet fully detailed human–robot interaction (HRI) in collective service settings. His research analysed 1,107 online hotel reviews referring to service robots, identifying how customers appraise and cope with HRI during collective service experiences. He proposed a conceptual model of the impact of HRI on post-purchase outcomes.
Tests of the model with field data from 310 customers who interacted with a restaurant robot revealed that challenge appraisals of HRI drive problem-focused, emotion-focused, and support-seeking coping strategies, while threat appraisals lead only to emotion-focused coping. These coping efforts during collective service experiences produced shared realities of the robot across customers, reducing their switching intention and enhancing relational service well-being. Service providers were advised to actively mitigate threat appraisals, promote challenge appraisals, and support customers in coping with frontline service robots.
Mark is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Marketing & Supply Chain Management at the School of Business & Economics, Maastricht University and a founding member of the Maastricht Center for Robots as well as a PhD Candidate at the QUT Business School – School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations and member of the Centre for Behavioural Economics, Society and Technology of Queensland University of Technology. His research interest is in service research, particularly, service robots, service networks, and vulnerable customers, as well as technology-infused service delivery in transformative service settings, such as education, health- and long-term care. He recently published in the Journal of Service Management.