Purpose

Service robots are now an integral part of people's living and working environment, making service robots one of the hot topics for service researchers today. Against that background, the paper reviews the recent service robot literature following a Theory-Context-Characteristics-Methodology (TCCM) approach to capture the state of art of the field. In addition, building on qualitative input from researchers who are active in this field, the authors highlight where opportunities for further development and growth lie.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper identifies and analyzes 88 manuscripts (featuring 173 individual studies) published in academic journals featured on the SERVSIG literature alert. In addition, qualitative input gathered from 79 researchers who are active in the service field and doing research on service robots is infused throughout the manuscript.

Findings

The key research foci of the service robot literature to date include comparing service robots with humans, the role of service robots' look and feel, consumer attitudes toward service robots and the role of service robot conversational skills and behaviors. From a TCCM view, the authors discern dominant theories (anthropomorphism theory), contexts (retail/healthcare, USA samples, Business-to-Consumer (B2C) settings and customer focused), study characteristics (robot types: chatbots, not embodied and text/voice-based; outcome focus: customer intentions) and methodologies (experimental, picture-based scenarios).

Originality/value

The current paper is the first to analyze the service robot literature from a TCCM perspective. Doing so, the study gives (1) a comprehensive picture of the field to date and (2) highlights key pathways to inspire future work.

中文翻译：

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与服务机器人一起生活和工作：TCCM 分析和未来研究的考虑

目的

服务机器人现在已经成为人们生活和工作环境中不可或缺的一部分，使得服务机器人成为当今服务研究人员的热门话题之一。在此背景下，本文回顾了最近的服务机器人文献，采用理论-上下文-特征-方法 (TCCM) 方法来捕捉该领域的最新技术。此外，基于活跃于该领域的研究人员的定性意见，作者强调了进一步发展和增长的机会所在。

设计/方法/方法

该论文识别并分析了发表在 SERVSIG 文献警报中的学术期刊上的 88 篇手稿（包含 173 项个人研究）。此外，从 79 位活跃于服务领域并从事服务机器人研究的研究人员收集的定性意见被注入整个手稿。

发现

迄今为止，服务机器人文献的主要研究重点包括服务机器人与人类的比较、服务机器人外观和感觉的作用、消费者对服务机器人的态度以及服务机器人会话技能和行为的作用。从 TCCM 的角度来看，作者辨别了主导理论（拟人化理论）、背景（零售/医疗保健、美国样本、企业对消费者 (B2C) 设置和以客户为中心）、研究特征（机器人类型：聊天机器人、非实体化和文本/基于语音；结果重点：客户意图）和方法（实验性、基于图片的场景）。

原创性/价值

目前的论文是第一个从 TCCM 角度分析服务机器人文献的论文。这样做，该研究提供了 (1) 迄今为止该领域的全面情况，以及 (2) 突出了激发未来工作的关键途径。