Prescriptive multi-group networks: Humanoid service robots’ value co-creation and co-destruction potentials in apparel stores

Abstract

Drawing upon a theoretical foundation within service-dominant logic, this study analyzed multi-group networks of humanoid service robots (HSRs) and investigated the differences in the structures and relations between groups that adopted and rejected HSRs. Moreover, it explored the most important and central predictors in each network among value co-creation and co-destruction potentials. A pretest and the main data collection (n = 474) were conducted with a video-based stimulus in an apparel store. The results revealed that the structure and the three edge-weights in the networks of the groups that adopted and rejected HSRs differed significantly. Essentially, complexity and co-creation enjoyment were central-predictors within the networks. This study offers a comprehensive understanding of value co-creation and co-destruction between customers and technology actors, leading them to adopt and reject HSRs. Furthermore, it provides a pioneering methodological contribution to prescriptive network analytics that makes the network approach more accessible to academics and practitioners.