Abstract/Summary

Service scholars seem to have empirically overlooked the impact of service robots in the overall customer evaluation of tourism services. This study addresses this gap by leveraging three-factor theory and electronic Word-Of-Mouth data to assess human-robot interaction’ influence on customer satisfaction. Text analytics are deployed alongside a penalty-reward contrast technique on almost 70,000 online reviews spanning 44 hotels worldwide that incorporated service robots into their operations. Customer satisfaction with hospitality services is significantly increased by positive service robots’ performance, while no significant effect is associated with negative service robots’ performance. The traveler type does not moderate the relationship between service robots’ performance and customer satisfaction. These findings, confirmed through Propensity Score Matching, reveal that service robots constitute an “excitement factor” in hospitality service offerings, thus providing a strong incentive for their integration into the workforce. Policymakers are urged to proactively facilitate the transition to a more automated service economy.