Purpose

Many service industries are facing severe labor shortages. As a result, service providers are turning to new sources of labor, such as service robots. Critics however often point out that service robots lack emotional communication capabilities without which they cannot be expected to truly replace human employees and fill the emerging labor market gaps. Here, a research agenda for the investigation of the role of emotional communication by service robots and its effects on customers and their service experience are laid out. This paper aims to propose that research in this area will further understanding of how service robots can add value to service frontlines, engage customers, increasingly replace service employees and ultimately help overcome pressing labor shortages.

Design/methodology/approach

A research agenda structured around the three-step emotional communication process (i.e. read, decide and express) and the four emotional communication strategies crucial for service interactions (i.e. mimicking, alleviating, infusing and preventing) are conceptualized.

Findings

Three contributions are made. First, the importance of emotional communication by service robots during service interactions is highlighted. Second, interdisciplinary research priorities and opportunities in this emerging field are mapped out. Third, a theoretical structure to connect the findings of future studies is provided.

Originality/value

Service research investigating the role and implications of emotional communication by service robots is scarce. A research agenda to guide the exploration of this crucial, yet underresearched component of customer-robot service interactions is structured and mapped out.

中文翻译：

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服务机器人的情感交流：研究议程

目的

许多服务业面临严重的劳动力短缺。因此，服务提供商正在转向新的劳动力来源，例如服务机器人。然而，批评者经常指出，服务机器人缺乏情感交流能力，否则它们无法真正取代人类员工并填补新兴的劳动力市场空白。在这里，制定了研究服务机器人情感交流的作用及其对客户及其服务体验的影响的研究议程。本文旨在提出，该领域的研究将进一步了解服务机器人如何为服务一线增加价值、吸引客户、越来越多地替代服务员工并最终帮助克服紧迫的劳动力短缺问题。

设计/方法/方法

围绕三步情感交流过程（即阅读、决定和表达）和对服务交互至关重要的四种情感交流策略（即模仿、缓解、注入和预防）构建的研究议程被概念化。

发现

做出了三个贡献。首先，强调了服务机器人在服务交互过程中情感交流的重要性。其次，规划了这一新兴领域的跨学科研究重点和机遇。第三，提供了一个连接未来研究结果的理论结构。

原创性/价值

调查服务机器人情感交流的作用和影响的服务研究很少。一个研究议程，以指导探索客户-机器人服务交互的这一关键但研究不足的组件，并制定了计划。