A Contingency-based Approach to Service Robot Design: Role of Robot Capabilities and Personalities

The rise of service robots is changing how products and services are delivered, significantly affecting customer outcomes. However, research has yet to specifically examine how the design of a service robot to specific service contexts influences customer engagement and value co-creation. Our study adopts a contingency perspective to investigate how the design of robot capabilities and personalities aligned with specific service contexts impacts customer engagement and value co-creation intentions. We tested this proposition through three experiments carried out in the banking and restaurant service contexts. Our findings revealed the effectiveness of carefully designed robotic capabilities and personalities within a service infrastructure depends on the specific service contexts. The study findings have important implications for service firms in designing service robots through managing robot capabilities and personalities to align with specific service contexts.