Tourists' Value Co-Creation With Service Robots: Antecedents and Mechanisms

Recent research on the use of robotics in hospitality and tourism has called attention to tourists' post-adoption behavior, including value co-creation. Guided by the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework, a mixed-method study was conducted to explore the antecedents and mechanisms of tourists' value co-creation behavior with robots. Qualitative interviews revealed robots' anthropomorphism and economic rewards as tourists' key concerns regarding robot-provided services. Subsequently, partial least squares structural equation modeling was employed to investigate how robot service attributes influenced tourist-robot co-creation, including participation and citizenship behaviors, and enhancing tourists' experiences at tourist attractions. Findings indicated that three types of perceived experiential value fully mediated the relationships between robots' degree of anthropomorphism and tourists' value co-creation behavior, as well as between economic rewards and participation behavior. However, the relationship between economic rewards and citizenship behavior was partially mediated. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Automated summary

Recent research has focused on tourists' post-adoption behavior and value co-creation in the context of robotics in hospitality and tourism. This mixed-method study explored the antecedents and mechanisms of tourists' value co-creation behavior with robots using the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) framework. Qualitative interviews revealed tourists' concerns about robots' anthropomorphism and economic rewards in the context of robot-provided services. The findings indicated that perceived experiential value fully mediated the relationships between robots' anthropomorphism and tourists' value co-creation behavior, as well as between economic rewards and participation behavior.