Robots to the Rescue? Shaping Service Experiences in Healthcare and Beyond

Many service industries are increasingly facing personnel shortages and search for alternative sources of labor, such as service robots. However, not only lags our understanding of service robots in organizational settings significantly behind these remarkable technological developments, existing literature also points towards consumer resistance towards the integration of these technological entities.
This dissertation approaches the question of how consumers can be stimulated to experience greater acceptance, satisfaction, and compliance with service robots. In turn, this can contribute significantly to the successful integration of robots into service frontlines.
Based on research cautioning that consumers are reluctant to accept service robots, Chapter 2 sheds light on an important boundary condition to earlier work and shows that consumers are more accepting of service robots in situations where they fear social judgment. Chapters 3 and 4 investigate the use of robots in transformative services where the intended improvement of consumer well-being depends heavily on the collaborative behavior of consumers. Chapter 3 shows that robot feedback, both positive and negative, is less impactful for consumer self-concept and consumer satisfaction with the service provider, than human feedback. Chapter 4 finds that compliance with a service robot‘s health-related advice can be increased if the robot acts semi-autonomously and is validated by a human coworker.
Overall, my dissertation comprehensively explores various factors that enhance interactions with service robots. By doing so, this work adds to the emerging body of literature essential for unlocking the considerable potential of service robots within organizational settings.