Search

With the permeation of artificial intelligence (AI) through the tourism and hospitality industry, a comprehensive understanding of its features and service outcomes is important for both academia and practice. In this study, a meta-analytic framework with 23 constructs from 91 research papers was developed. This analysis indicated that AI features can be categorized as sensory, social or functional; and the relationships among these features were revealed. Additionally, these features lead to positive service outcomes via a process involving customers' cognition, affect and relationships with service providers. The research method, AI type and participants' gender moderate the influence of AI features on service outcomes, but stimulants and prior experience do not. These findings enhance the understanding of AI applications and consequences and have managerial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial intelligence (AI) contactless services thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic, while their consequences remained unclear. Based on media equation theory and means-end chain theory, this study proposed a model explaining the effect of AI contactless services on customers' psychological safety, perceived control, hedonic value, and service quality. Data were collected from hotel customers with an online panel survey and a site survey in Wuhan, China. Chi-square statistics indicated that there were no significant differences between the two datasets. A structural equation modeling analysis of the combined data (n=316) suggested that two dimensions of AI contactless services led to the examined customers' psychological safety, which in turn positively influenced their hedonic value and service quality but negatively affected their perceived control. Additionally, customer psychological safety was found to mediate certain relationships between contactless service attributes and perceived value. The research findings contribute to AI service applications and influence theoretically and practically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the influence of service robot attributes on customers' hospitality experience from the perspective of relationship building. Through literature review and a preliminary study with in-depth interviews, a conceptual framework was developed. A scenario-based experiment and questionnaire survey were designed to test the model. The results indicate that robots' being perceived as humanlike or intelligent positively affects customer-robot rapport building and the hospitality experience. Additionally, customer-employee rapport building was found to mediate the relationship between robot attributes and the hospitality experience, but customer-robot rapport building was not. Based on these findings, theoretical contributions and practical implications were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Customer participation in services has received increasing attention in hospitality research. Despite the growing attention, research on perceived customer participation (PCP) from an employee perspective remains limited. It may be valuable to inspect the service dominant logic from the perspective of employees. Thus, this study attempts to develop a measurement scale for PCP. The effect of PCP on employee innovative behavior (EIB) is also examined from a hospitality context. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are used to address the research problem. Three dimensions of PCP are identified, and the high reliability and validity of the scale are confirmed. The analysis based on the main survey data from 514 restaurant employees also reveals that customer information and emotional participation positively affect EIB, whereas the relationship between behavioral participation and EIB is insignificant. The research findings carry implications for research on PCP and the management of EIB in hospitality firms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]