Effects of the spatial environment on tourists’ willingness to adopt robot services

Abstract

ABSTRACT Much of the literature on individuals’ low adoption of robots revolves around service quality or consumer psychology; physical environmental factors are scarcely addressed. This paper investigates consumers’ willingness to adopt robot services based on the spatial environment. A pair of experimental studies revealed that people are more willing to use robot services when the setting is spacious, whereas the opposite is true when the setting is compact. We also examined illusion of control as a mediator of the above impact. Furthermore, we identified consumers’ knowledge of robots as a boundary condition.