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Special Section call for papers: Journal of Service Management & GMC 2020<\/em><\/p>\n Living and Working with (Ro)bots \u2013 The Impact of (Ro)Bots on the Service Frontline<\/strong><\/p>\n New Deadline Open call\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Guest-Editors & Track Chairs:<\/em> According to many academics and practitioners, we are on the verge an artificially intelligent (AI) age (Huang and Rust 2018). New technologies are rapidly transforming virtually every aspect of our private and work lives. Already today, service interactions are significantly influenced by algorithms and the integration and usage of service (ro)bots is increasingly growing (Teixeira et al., 2017; van Doorn et al., 2017). Especially exciting are the opportunities offered by the integration of physical robots and\/or virtual bots in service delivery (\u010cai\u0107 et al. 2018; De Keyser et al. 2019; Wirtz et al. 2018). These interact with their human counterparts in their daily routines at home, school, and in the workplace, and are there to assist in various ways (e.g., personal assistants like Alexa and Siri). Such (ro)bots are expected to impact a variety of service industries, most importantly education, healthcare, elderly care, hospitality, and retail (KPMG 2016). A recent study by IBM predicts that 85 % of all customer-firm-interactions will be conducted without human intervention by 2020 (IBM, 2017)<\/p>\n Despite all big promises and crazy scenarios in the popular press, robotics science is still a relatively young discipline, and many (ro)bots are still in a prototype phase. Nonetheless, the field is advancing at a rapid pace, raising the need to better understand the role of (ro)bots in service delivery, the reaction and usage by customers and (frontline) employees, as well as guiding principles for the development and design of service (ro)bots. For sure, the service discipline can and should contribute to this discussion, ensuring the development of technology fitting various service industries and contexts. At the same, the new opportunities offered by (ro)bot advancement do not only offer advantages for users and society in general. Many ethical and societal questions surrounding (ro)bot-delivered service become evident at the individual, market, and environmental levels, and should also be addressed by service researchers.<\/p>\n Research topics that are of interest <\/strong><\/p>\n This special section aims to contribute to the new research field of service (ro)bots and their impact on customer\/employee experience and society at large. Submissions can be conceptual or empirical (quantitative or qualitative) in nature. The topics can be approached from a customer\/employee or business perspective or both. We highly value interdisciplinary approaches. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:<\/p>\n Specific research questions that are of interest may be found (among others) in these articles:<\/p>\n De Keyser, A., K\u00f6cher, S., Alkire (n\u00e9e Nasr), L., Verbeeck, C. and Kandampully, J. (2019), \u201cFrontline Service Technology infusion: Conceptual Archetypes and Future Research directions\u201d, Journal of Service Management<\/em>, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 156-183.<\/p>\n Robinson, S., Orsingher, C., Alkire (n\u00e9e Nasr), L., De Keyser, A., Giebelhausen, M., Papmichaeil, K. N., Shams, P. and Temerak M. S. (2019), \u201cFrontline Encounters of the AI Kind: An Evolved Service Encounter\u201d, Journal of Business Research<\/em>, forthcoming.<\/p>\n Wirtz, J., Patterson, P., Kunz, W., Gruber, T., Lu, V. N., & Paluch, S. (2018). Brave New World: Service Robots in The Frontline. Journal of Service Management<\/em>, Vol. 29 No. 5,\u00a0pp. 907-931.<\/p>\n Submission<\/strong><\/p>\n Submission is open to all papers (and it is not necessary to part of the special track on GMC 2020).\u00a0All manuscripts submitted must not have been published, accepted for publication, or be currently under consideration elsewhere.<\/p>\n Full paper submission deadline: Oct. 31st<\/sup>, 2020<\/p>\n Authors should submit their full papers through the journal website submission system<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com\/journal\/josm<\/a><\/p>\n and<\/p>\n should clealry phrase in the cover letter that this is a submission for the JOSM special section on \u2018Living and Working with (Ro)bots \u2013 The Impact of (Ro)bots on the Service Frontline\u2019.<\/p>\n Manuscripts should be submitted in accordance with the author guidelines available on the journal home page at<\/p>\n http:\/\/www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com\/products\/journals\/author_guidelines.htm?id=josm<\/a><\/p>\n Expected publication: <\/strong>Volume 31 (Issue 1) 2022<\/p>\n Please direct any further inquiries to the editors, listed below.<\/p>\n Guest Editor Contact Details<\/strong><\/p>\n Dr. Werner Kunz
\nFull Paper Deadline: October 31st, 2020<\/p>\n
\nWerner Kunz (University of Massachusetts Boston)<\/em>
\nArne De Keyser (EDHEC Business School)<\/em><\/p>\n\n
\nDigital Media Lab
\nUniversity of Massachusetts Boston
\nWerner.Kunz@umb.edu<\/a><\/p>\n