The Effect of Express Delivery Robot Autonomy on Customer Responsibility Attribution in a Service Failure Scenario

Abstract

In order to improve the efficiency of e-commerce logistics services and reduce labor costs, many cities have introduced express delivery robots to provide express delivery services. Robotic service failures occur from time to time due to the complexity of the service environment, immature technology, and other constraints. This study investigates the effect of service robot autonomy on customer responsibility attribution using a 2 (robot autonomy: high vs. low) x 2 (customer participation level: high vs. low) between-groups experimental approach to investigate the mediating role of controllability and the moderating role of customer participation using the scenario of service failure of a express delivery robot. The experimental results show that robot autonomy increases customers' attribution of responsibility to the robot in service failure scenarios, and controllability partially mediates this effect, but the moderating effect of customer participation is not demonstrated. The experimental results provide implications for the design and use of service robots.