IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/anture/v106y2024ics0160738324000458.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unintended indulgence in robotic service encounters

Author

Listed:
  • Choi, Sungwoo
  • Wan, Lisa C.
  • Mattila, Anna S.

Abstract

The hospitality and tourism industry is moving closer to implementing robotic service encounters as more companies use service robots in frontline service positions. However, we still lack knowledge of the unintentional effects of robotic service encounters. In three field and online experimental studies, we found that robotic service encounters unintentionally drive people to make indulgent choices because interacting with robots generates an exclusionary experience and a situational need to belong. These effects were muted when the service robot was humanlike and in the context of group consumption. This research contributes to the service robot and indulgence literature. Our findings suggest that managers should cautiously deploy service robots at their frontline, given consumers' growing interest in a healthy lifestyle.

Suggested Citation

  • Choi, Sungwoo & Wan, Lisa C. & Mattila, Anna S., 2024. "Unintended indulgence in robotic service encounters," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:106:y:2024:i:c:s0160738324000458
    DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2024.103768
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160738324000458
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.annals.2024.103768?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wang, Phyllis Xue & Kim, Sara & Kim, Minki, 2023. "Robot anthropomorphism and job insecurity: The role of social comparison," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    2. Rui (Juliet) Zhu & Jennifer J. Argo, 2013. "Exploring the Impact of Various Shaped Seating Arrangements on Persuasion," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 40(2), pages 336-349.
    3. TaeWoo Kim & Hyejin Lee & Michelle Yoosun Kim & SunAh Kim & Adam Duhachek, 2023. "AI increases unethical consumer behavior due to reduced anticipatory guilt," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 785-801, July.
    4. Nicole L. Mead & Roy F. Baumeister & Tyler F. Stillman & Catherine D. Rawn & Kathleen D. Vohs, 2011. "Social Exclusion Causes People to Spend and Consume Strategically in the Service of Affiliation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 37(5), pages 902-919.
    5. Liu, Xing (Stella) & Yi, Xiao (Shannon) & Wan, Lisa C., 2022. "Friendly or competent? The effects of perception of robot appearance and service context on usage intention," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    6. Xun (Irene) Huang & Zhongqiang (Tak) Huang & Robert S WyerJr & Darren DahlEditor & JoAndrea HoeggAssociate Editor, 2018. "The Influence of Social Crowding on Brand Attachment," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(5), pages 1068-1084.
    7. Jaehoon Lee & L. J. Shrum, 2012. "Conspicuous Consumption versus Charitable Behavior in Response to Social Exclusion: A Differential Needs Explanation," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 39(3), pages 530-544.
    8. Sungwoo Choi & Stella X. Liu & Choongbeom Choi, 2022. "Correction to: Robot–brand fit the influence of brand personality on consumer reactions to service robot adoption," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 173-176, March.
    9. Yang, Hongyan & Xu, Hong & Zhang, Yan & Liang, Yan & Lyu, Ting, 2022. "Exploring the effect of humor in robot failure," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    10. Lisa C. Wan & Michael K. Hui & Robert S. Wyer Jr., 2011. "The Role of Relationship Norms in Responses to Service Failures," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 38(2), pages 260-277.
    11. Liu, Xing (Stella) & Wan, Lisa C. & Yi, Xiao (Shannon), 2022. "Humanoid versus non-humanoid robots: How mortality salience shapes preference for robot services under the COVID-19 pandemic?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    12. Haksin Chan & Lisa C. Wan & Leo Y. M. Sin, 2009. "The Contrasting Effects of Culture on Consumer Tolerance: Interpersonal Face and Impersonal Fate," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(2), pages 292-304.
    13. Raghunathan, Rajagopal & Pham, Michel Tuan, 1999. "All Negative Moods Are Not Equal: Motivational Influences of Anxiety and Sadness on Decision Making, , , , ," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 56-77, July.
    14. Rebecca K. Ratner & Rebecca W. Hamilton, 2015. "Inhibited from Bowling Alone," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 42(2), pages 266-283.
    15. Wan, Lisa C., 2013. "Culture's impact on consumer complaining responses to embarrassing service failure," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 298-305.
    16. Argo, Jennifer J. & Dahl, Darren W., 2020. "Social Influence in the Retail Context: A Contemporary Review of the Literature," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 25-39.
    17. Wan, Lisa C. & Chan, Elisa K. & Luo, Xiaoyan, 2021. "ROBOTS COME to RESCUE: How to reduce perceived risk of infectious disease in Covid19-stricken consumers?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    18. Lane Peterson Fronczek & Martin Mende & Maura L. Scott & Gergana Y. Nenkov & Anders Gustafsson, 2023. "Friend or foe? Can anthropomorphizing self-tracking devices backfire on marketers and consumers?," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(5), pages 1075-1097, September.
    19. Xiong, Xiling & Wong, IpKin Anthony & Yang, Fiona X., 2021. "Are we behaviorally immune to COVID-19 through robots?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    20. Marie‐Eve Laporte & Sophie Rieunier & Geraldine Michel, 2020. "When family dining protects against sweet food consumption… and when it does not," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 628-647, June.
    21. Lv, Xingyang & Liu, Yue & Luo, Jingjing & Liu, Yuqing & Li, Chunxiao, 2021. "Does a cute artificial intelligence assistant soften the blow? The impact of cuteness on customer tolerance of assistant service failure," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    22. Eduardo B. Andrade, 2005. "Behavioral Consequences of Affect: Combining Evaluative and Regulatory Mechanisms," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 32(3), pages 355-362, December.
    23. Sungwoo Choi & Stella X Liu & Choongbeom Choi, 2022. "Robot–Brand Fit The Influence Of Brand Personality On Consumer Reactions To Service Robot Adoption," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 129-142, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fan Alei (Aileen) & Van Hoof Hubert B. & Loyola Sandra Pesantez & Lituma Sebastián Calle & Granda Marlene Jaramillo, 2016. "The impact of other customers and gender on consumer complaint behaviour in the Ecuadorian restaurant setting," European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation, Sciendo, vol. 7(1), pages 21-29, May.
    2. Chan, Elisa K. & Wan, Lisa C. & Yi, Xiao (Shannon), 2022. "Smart technology vs. embarrassed human: The inhibiting effect of anticipated technology embarrassment," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    3. Huiyue Ye & Sunny Sun & Rob Law, 2022. "A Review of Robotic Applications in Hospitality and Tourism Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-15, August.
    4. Song, Mengmeng & Zhang, Huixian & Xing, Xinyu & Duan, Yucong, 2023. "Appreciation vs. apology: Research on the influence mechanism of chatbot service recovery based on politeness theory," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    5. Yang, Hongyan & Xu, Hong & Zhang, Yan & Liang, Yan & Lyu, Ting, 2022. "Exploring the effect of humor in robot failure," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    6. Liu, Juan & Xu, Xing'an, 2023. "Humor type and service context shape AI service recovery," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    7. Chan, Elisa K., 2023. "Pandemic experience and locus of protection," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    8. Chen, Ke & Chen, Jianxun & Zhan, Wu & Sharma, Piyush, 2020. "When in Rome! Complaint contagion effect in multi-actor service ecosystems," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 628-641.
    9. Aparna A. Labroo & Natalie Mizik & Russell Winer, 2022. "Sparking conversations: Editors’ Pick with commentaries and thematic article compilations," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 33(1), pages 1-4, March.
    10. Khalifa, Dina & Shukla, Paurav, 2021. "When luxury brand rejection causes brand dilution," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 110-121.
    11. Park, Sehoon & Kim, Chaeyeong & Park, Jane, 2023. "How power distance belief, self-construal, and relationship norms impact conspicuous consumption," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    12. Shrum, L.J. & Wong, Nancy & Arif, Farrah & Chugani, Sunaina K. & Gunz, Alexander & Lowrey, Tina M. & Nairn, Agnes & Pandelaere, Mario & Ross, Spencer M. & Ruvio, Ayalla & Scott, Kristin & Sundie, Jill, 2013. "Reconceptualizing materialism as identity goal pursuits: Functions, processes, and consequences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1179-1185.
    13. Zheng, Chundong & Qian, Fangyuan & Song, Jiehang & Wang, Han, 2024. "Make the photo in good shape: The matching effect of photo shapes and donation appeals on donation intentions," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    14. Liu, Stephanie Q. & Bogicevic, Vanja & Mattila, Anna S., 2018. "Circular vs. angular servicescape: “Shaping” customer response to a fast service encounter pace," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 47-56.
    15. Thomas, Veronica L. & Saenger, Christina, 2020. "Feeling excluded? Join the crowd: How social exclusion affects approach behavior toward consumer-dense retail environments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 520-528.
    16. Liu, Fu & Wei, Haiying & Zhu, Zhenzhong & Chen, Haipeng (Allan), 2022. "Warmth or competence: Brand anthropomorphism, social exclusion, and advertisement effectiveness," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    17. Ahyoung Yu & Seunghee Han, 2021. "Social Exclusion and Effectiveness of Self-Benefit versus Other-Benefit Marketing Appeals for Eco-Friendly Products," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-11, April.
    18. Li, Yuan (William) & Wan, Lisa C. & Luo, Xiaoyan & Wu, Chuanlong, 2023. "If museum treasures could talk: How anthropomorphism increases favorable visitor responses," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    19. Walasek, Lukasz & Matthews, William J & Rakow, Tim, 2015. "The need to belong and the value of belongings: Does ostracism change the subjective value of personal possessions?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 195-204.
    20. Liu, Xing (Stella) & Yi, Xiao (Shannon) & Wan, Lisa C., 2022. "Friendly or competent? The effects of perception of robot appearance and service context on usage intention," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:anture:v:106:y:2024:i:c:s0160738324000458. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/annals-of-tourism-research/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.