Examining the effects of robots' physical appearance, warmth, and competence in frontline services: The Humanness‐Value‐Loyalty model
研究机器人外观像人、能力和温暖感如何影响顾客的服务价值期望和忠诚意愿，发现人性化外观提升价值期望，能力影响实用价值，温暖感影响情感价值，且低社交需求顾客更受温暖感影响。
Abstract Because of continuous improvements in their underlying technologies, customers perceive frontline robots as social actors with a high level of humanness, both in appearance and behavior. Advancing from mere theoretical contributions to this study field, this article proposes and empirically validates the humanness‐value‐loyalty model (HVL model). This study analyzes to what extent robots' perceived physical human‐likeness, perceived competence, and perceived warmth affect customers' service value expectations and, subsequently, their loyalty intentions. Following two pretests to select the most suitable robots and ensure scenario realism, data were collected by means of a vignette experimental study and analyzed using the partial least squares method. The results reveal that human‐likeness positively affects four dimensions of service value expectations. Perceived competence of the robot influences mainly utilitarian expectations (i.e., functional and monetary value), while perceived warmth influences relational expectations (i.e., emotional value). Interestingly, and contrary to theoretical predictions, the influence of the robot's warmth on service value expectations is more pronounced for customers with a lower need for social interaction. In sum, this study contributes to a better understanding of customers' reactions to artificial intelligence‐enabled technologies with humanized cognitive capabilities and also suggests interesting research avenues to advance on this emerging field.