Frontline Employees' Acceptance of and Resistance to Service Robots in Stationary Retail - An Exploratory Interview Study

Abstract

Due to rising online competition, increasing cost pressure and cross-channel customer journeys, stationary retail has tried to develop innovative value propositions and co-create value with customers through new technologies, which are expected to profoundly change the stationary retail’s service systems. Among other technologies, service robots are said to have the potential to revitalise interactive value creation in stationary retail. However, the integration of such technologies poses new challenges. Prior research has looked at customers’ acceptance of service robots in stationary retail settings, but few studies have explored their counterparts – the frontline employees’ (FLEs) perspective. Yet, FLEs’ acceptance of service robots is crucial to implement service robots for retail innovation. To explore FLEs’ acceptance of and resistance to service robots, a qualitative exploratory interview study is conducted. It identifies decisive aspects, amongst others loss of status or role incongruency. The findings extend prior studies on technology acceptance and resistance and reveal i.a. that FLEs perceive service robots as both a threat and potential support. Moreover, they feel hardly involved in the co-creation of use cases for a service robot, although they are willing to contribute.