Frontline Employees’ Attitude Toward Embodied Social Robots In Customer Service: An Integrative Framework And Empirical Test

Abstract

Embodied social robots-robots providing services for and in cocreation with consumers-are expected to profoundly change the way services are delivered. Yet, their integration in customer service poses a challenge: their adoption by frontline employees (FLEs). Accordingly, this study aims to examine FLEs’ attitude toward embodied social robots and to uncover its antecedents. This work presents an integrative framework which builds upon the technology acceptance model and examines the influence of potential factors on FLEs’ attitude toward embodied social robots. An online survey among 165 FLEs is used to test the integrative framework. Despite the growing knowledge regarding customers’ perceptions of (embodied social) robots, the perspective of FLEs is under-investigated while crucial to foster FLEs’ acceptance of such robots. This research concludes with several strategies service providers can implement to possibly enhance FLEs’ attitude toward embodied social robots, and thus, to support their adoption by FLEs.