Special Issue of Journal of Business Research
Unanticipated and Unintended Consequences of Service Robots in the Frontline
Guest Editors: Heirati N, Pitardi V, Jayawardhena C, Kunz W, Stefanie Paluch S & Wirtz J
Deadline: 31 March 2023
AI applications, such as service robots are the future of service technology (Choi et al., 2021). Amazon, Starbucks, Spotify, Mastercard are prominent examples of brands that employ various artificial intelligence (AI) applications to improve customer experience (Grewal et al., 2020; Huang & Rust, 2018; Wirtz et al., 2018). AI is distinct from general information technology, in that, it involves technologies that can learn, connect, adapt, and display aspects of human intelligence (Huang & Rust, 2018). Service robots are a specific application of AI technology and represent the interface for the customer interaction and delivery channel for the service and are defined as “system-based autonomous and adaptable interfaces that interact, communicate and deliver service to an organization’s customers” (Wirtz et al., 2018, p. 909). There is a growing interest among academics in how AI and service robots are shaking up the business world (Haenlein & Kaplan, 2021; Hollebeek et al., 2021). While studies have started investigating how AI-powered service robots are changing the ways consumers interact with service providers (Mende et al., 2019; McLay et al., 2021), the impact of such technology on the overall customer service experience remains largely unexplored and unintended consequences of such interactions are still unclear.
Topics of interest include five main themes:
– Service Robots and customer emotions;
– Service Robots and customer misbehaviour;
– Service Robots and the changing role of customers and service employees;
– Ethical and privacy concerns in Service robots;
– Service Robots and post-purchasing behaviour.
CALL FOR PAPER
In this special issue of the Journal of Business Research, we will examine papers that expand our understanding of the theoretical frameworks, help retailers and service organizations understand how services robots can affect a customer journey from pre-purchase touchpoints to service experience and post-purchasing outcomes. We are interested in both qualitative and quantitative inquiries that explore topics in this domain. We encourage collaborative work between scholars and managers/companies and data from diverse sources, including secondary data, lab and field experiments, performance-related data, ethnographic work, etc. We believe that the empirical study of service robots in service settings, given the nascent nature of this research in marketing, provides ideal opportunities for multidisciplinary research.
— Article submission deadline: 31 March 2023
— More info here.
ONLINE WORKSHOP — 15 September 2022 (09:00 – 16:00)
This workshop will explore topics related to the unanticipated and unintended consequences of service robots in the frontline from a multitude of domains and will bring together researchers from various disciplines including AI, marketing management, consumer psychology, and the digital economy. It will encourage collaborative work between scholars and managers/companies and data from diverse sources such as secondary data, lab and field experiments, performance-related data, ethnographic work, etc.
— Abstract deadline (1000 words): 20 August 2022
— More info here.
Organizers
– Dr Valentina Pitardi, Department of Marketing and Retail Management, Surrey Business School
– Dr Nima Heirati, Department of Marketing and Retail Management, Surrey Business School
– Prof Chanaka Jayawardhena, Department of Marketing and Retail Management, Surrey Business School
– Professor Werner Kunz, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA
Professor Stefanie Paluch, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
– Professor Jochen Wirtz, NUS Business School, National University of Singapore, Singapore
