The effects of appearance personification of service robots on customer decision-making in the product recommendation context

Abstract

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic has made contactless services such as those provided by robots increasingly pervasive. Some stores are gradually adopting service robots to sell products, which has not been explored in previous research. This study aims to explore how appearance personification of service robots affects customer decision-making in the product recommendation context.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on authentic in-store product recommendation service interactions, an experiment for three simulated scenarios was conducted and data was collected from 338 valid samples.

Findings

The results show appearance personification has a positive impact on customer purchase behavior while it has negative impacts on customer decision time and degree of hesitation.

Originality/value

This study not only enriches the literature on application scenarios of service robots but also supplements the literature on various customer decision-making variables in the field of service robots. It provides important practical guidance for designing robots to optimize their impact on customer decision-making.

Citation

Zhang, S., Tang, G., Li, X. and Ren, A. (2023), "The effects of appearance personification of service robots on customer decision-making in the product recommendation context", Industrial Management & Data Systems, Vol. 123 No. 2, pp. 578-595. https://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-11-2021-0662