FBA Salon Series on Tourism+: The effects of robot type and task objectivity in robot service was hosted by Prof. Faye Feier CHEN, Assistant Professor of the Department of Integrated Resort and Tourism Management on October 30, 2024 and PhD student Alyssa XING at the Department of Integrated Resort and Tourism Management, was invited to be the keynote speaker. She shared the relevant research findings under the guidance of Assistant Professor Huiling HUANG.
Alyssa XING introduced the current development status of robots in the hotel and tourism industries, elaborating on how the different degrees of robot anthropomorphism and the various types of tasks they undertake have a profound impact on customer experience. Then, through the data and results of two experiments, she revealed the relationship between the task types of service robots and customer satisfaction. The research shows that humanoid robots are considered more capable when performing subjective tasks. Therefore, when mistakes occur in subjective tasks, customers’ dissatisfaction will increase significantly. However, in objective tasks, humanoid and non-humanoid robots are considered to have similar capabilities, and the degree of customers’ dissatisfaction after objective task failures is also relatively close. In addition, the study found that negative expectancy violation is a potential mechanism to explain the impact of robot types on subjective task failures.
At the end of the sharing, Alyssa XING reviewed the experience of this research, frankly stating that she had gained a lot of valuable experience during the research process but also faced considerable challenges. In the subsequent Q&A interactive session, teachers and students had a lively discussion on continuing to focus on the application and development of robot services in the tourism industry in future research.
