Abstract
Robot technology at small- and medium-sized enterprises has become a crucial part of current business operations. Beginning with the manufacturing industry, more industries than ever before have recently begun making use of robot technology to increase operational efficiency and productivity. However, prior studies regarding innovation related to intelligent robot use have been limited to developing strategies for describing robot technologies in general. Therefore, we developed a research model for investigating process innovation as it relates to intelligent robots. Based on the literature, two variables of technology benefits (direct usefulness and indirect usefulness) and two constructs of environmental pressure (industry and government) were incorporated into the research model as key determinants of a firm’s process innovation. Furthermore, organizational supports as moderating variables were added to the relationship between technology benefits and process innovation. We collected 257 responses in managerial position at various firms in order to test the proposed hypotheses using structural equation modeling in the statistical software (AMOS 22.0). The results revealed that all variables have a significant impact on process innovation, as well as the moderator. The findings of this study provide theoretical and practical implications for process innovation based on intelligent robot technology.
Highlights
In the current intelligence-based society, robots are increasingly being used to replace the human workforce
A survey reflecting the technological benefits and environmental pressures that may play important roles in process innovation based on intelligent robots was administered from the perspective of organizational members by conducting interviews with managers and staff members, and using a basic research model based on a literature review
Prior studies examining the relationships between external pressure and both technical and process innovation have confirmed that corporate partners, competitors, and governmental pressure all affect the introduction of new technologies, such as electronic data interchange (EDI), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and radio frequency identification (RFID) [24]
Summary
In the current intelligence-based society, robots are increasingly being used to replace the human workforce. Industrial robots mainly perform simple and repetitive tasks, such as assembling, welding, coating, and semiconductor manufacturing, whereas service robots are largely utilized for medical purposes, animal husbandry, education, national defense, and domestic support. Rehabilitation robots that administer care to patients, educational robots that assist in providing education, and military robots that can be used for national defense have become increasingly popular Their application range is becoming wider based on the development of new technology, but research on innovation in intelligent robot technology and processes is still lacking [2,3]. Does organizational support enhance the relationship between technical traits and process innovation based on intelligent robot technologies?. Organizational supports are proposed as a moderating effect for the relationship between the variables of technical traits and process innovation based on intelligent robots. Validation of the proposed research model is expected to improve our understanding of the reasons why firms adopt intelligent robots to improve their processes
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