Humanoid Service Robots

Based on four empirical studies, Moritz Merkle examines the introduction of humanoid robots to the frontline service encounter in a customer-centric approach focusing on customer expectations and customer responses. The author identifies desirable robotic behavioral cues and shows that service robots meet great acceptance among customers. After service failures, customers are even more likely to forgive service robots than human employees. Further, he shows how crucial it is to manage customer expectations that depend on cultural dimensions and internal reference categories.

Autorentext

Moritz Merkle completed his doctoral studies at the Technical University of Darmstadt supervised by Prof. Dr. Dr. Ruth Stock-Homburg. Today he is postdoctoral researcher and habilitation candidate in the field of service marketing.

Inhalt
1 Introduction.- 2 Conceptual Background.- 3 Method.- 4 Study 1: A Service Robot Acceptance Model: Customer Acceptance of Humanoid Robots During Service Encounters.- 5 Study 2: A Cross-Country Comparison of Attitudes toward Humanoid Service Robots.- 6 Study 3: Beyond the Call of Duty: The Impact of Innovative Service Behavior by Robots on Customer Delight.- 7 Study 4: Customer Responses to Service Robots: Comparing Human-Robot Interaction with Human-Human Interaction.- 8 Overall Discussion.