Get Close to the Robot: The Effect of Risk Perception of COVID-19 Pandemic on Customer–Robot Engagement

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on customer–robot engagement in the Chinese hospitality industry. Analysis of a sample of 589 customers using service robots demonstrated that the perceived risk of COVID-19 has a positive influence on customer–robot engage...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wu, Jifei, Zhang, Xiangyun, Zhu, Yimin, Yu-Buck, Grace Fang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Article
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8296115/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34200867
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126314
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author Wu, Jifei
Zhang, Xiangyun
Zhu, Yimin
Yu-Buck, Grace Fang
author_facet Wu, Jifei
Zhang, Xiangyun
Zhu, Yimin
Yu-Buck, Grace Fang
author_sort Wu, Jifei
collection PubMed
description The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on customer–robot engagement in the Chinese hospitality industry. Analysis of a sample of 589 customers using service robots demonstrated that the perceived risk of COVID-19 has a positive influence on customer–robot engagement. The positive effect is mediated by social distancing and moderated by attitudes towards risk. Specifically, the mediating effect of social distancing between the perceived risk of COVID-19 and customer–robot engagement is stronger for risk-avoiding (vs. risk-seeking) customers. Our results provide insights for hotels when they employ service robots to cope with the shock of COVID-19 pandemic.
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spelling pubmed-82961152021-07-23 Get Close to the Robot: The Effect of Risk Perception of COVID-19 Pandemic on Customer–Robot Engagement Wu, Jifei Zhang, Xiangyun Zhu, Yimin Yu-Buck, Grace Fang Int J Environ Res Public Health Article The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on customer–robot engagement in the Chinese hospitality industry. Analysis of a sample of 589 customers using service robots demonstrated that the perceived risk of COVID-19 has a positive influence on customer–robot engagement. The positive effect is mediated by social distancing and moderated by attitudes towards risk. Specifically, the mediating effect of social distancing between the perceived risk of COVID-19 and customer–robot engagement is stronger for risk-avoiding (vs. risk-seeking) customers. Our results provide insights for hotels when they employ service robots to cope with the shock of COVID-19 pandemic. MDPI 2021-06-10 /pmc/articles/PMC8296115/ /pubmed/34200867 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126314 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Wu, Jifei
Zhang, Xiangyun
Zhu, Yimin
Yu-Buck, Grace Fang
Get Close to the Robot: The Effect of Risk Perception of COVID-19 Pandemic on Customer–Robot Engagement
title Get Close to the Robot: The Effect of Risk Perception of COVID-19 Pandemic on Customer–Robot Engagement
title_full Get Close to the Robot: The Effect of Risk Perception of COVID-19 Pandemic on Customer–Robot Engagement
title_fullStr Get Close to the Robot: The Effect of Risk Perception of COVID-19 Pandemic on Customer–Robot Engagement
title_full_unstemmed Get Close to the Robot: The Effect of Risk Perception of COVID-19 Pandemic on Customer–Robot Engagement
title_short Get Close to the Robot: The Effect of Risk Perception of COVID-19 Pandemic on Customer–Robot Engagement
title_sort get close to the robot: the effect of risk perception of covid-19 pandemic on customer–robot engagement
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8296115/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34200867
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126314
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