Understanding consumer responses to robot roles in human-robot service collaboration

Currently, enterprises have widely adopted the human-robot collaboration (HRC) approach to provide services, aiming to capitalize on the unique advantages of both humans and robots to enhance marketing effectiveness. However, little is known about consumers’ reactions to robot roles in HRC (i.e., as partners or subordinates of human employees). Through four experiments in various scenarios, we investigated the impact of the robot roles in HRC on consumers’ purchase intentions. The results show that when robots collaborate with human employees to recommend products or services to consumers, the robot acting as a partner (vs. subordinate) of the employee can enhance purchase intentions, and the perceived service authenticity mediates the effect of robot roles in HRC. Moreover, we find that the positive effect of the robot in a partner role disappears among consumers with utilitarian (vs. hedonic) consumption goals. These findings offer valuable insights into how and when consumers respond to the robot roles in HRC and how retailers can effectively position the roles of robots.