Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services 70 (2023) 103177

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services

Editorial

Robots and AI in retailing and consumer services

1. Why this special section? A second paper included in this special section is written by Merdi­
n-Uygur and Öztürkcan (2023) and focused more specifically on the
After our successful special issue on Retail & Technology in this social power relationships between consumers and service robots amid
journal, linked to the 26th RARCS conference in Tallin, Estonia (cf. the COVID-19 pandemic. Their findings suggest that Gen-Z consumers
Willems and Brengman, 2020), we decided to focus this time more hold more positive attitudes towards service robots which are perceived
specifically on the up-and-coming new technology of robots and AI as lower in power with respect to their human users (i.e., robotic airport
applied in retailing and consumer services, which would be linked to a check-in) as compared to higher power service robots (i.e., robotic
dedicated special track of the subsequent RARCS conference in Baveno, surgery), but that this attitude may change over time considering the
Italy. We did not anticipate that this conference would have to be situational context and the extent to which consumers feel empowered
postponed two times due to the consequences and restrictions caused by themselves.
the corona virus and would like to explicitly thank the contributors to A third paper by Arikan et al. (2023) focused on the impact of
our special track and the authors of the papers selected for this special human-likeness and humanness on responsibility attribution processes
section for their perseverance and for sticking with us over this pro­ in interactions with robotic and human agents in situations of service
longed period of time. failures. They found that consumers respond differently to service fail­
Hence, this special section is composed of four papers, selected ures depending on the service provider agent type (i.e., human, hu­
among ten original contributions submitted for presentation at the 28th manoid robot or non-humanoid robot), attributing more service failure
Recent Advances in Retailing and Consumer Services Conference which responsibility to the firm when the agent is less human-like, which in
eventually took place in the summer of 2022 in Baveno, Italy. The turn negatively affects consumer forgiveness and satisfaction.
special track on robots and AI in retailing and consumer services hosted A fourth paper by De Gauquier et al. (2023) examined the impact of
at this conference was a big hit, and we particularly want to thank the an employee-robot team (i.e., providing human as well as automated
reviewers, the contributors, as well as all the conference attendants for social presence), versus both service agents in isolation, on shopping
their enthusiasm, suggestions and constructive feedback. behavior according to the point-of-sales (POS) conversion funnel (cf.
Brengman et al., 2021). To this end, an unobtrusive field study was
2. Robots & AI in retailing and consumer services – a fruitful conducted at a chocolate store at Brussels Airport. The service interac­
compilation of studies tion under study involved a product recommendation scenario where
participants were recommended specific chocolates, based on a set of
With this special track and the related special section we aimed to personal preference questions. Their findings indicate that the optimal
encourage research on robotics and AI in retailing and services, which is implementation of human and/or robotic service agents depends on the
one of the priorities on the research agenda in the field of retailing and stage of conversion envisioned mainly.
consumer service today (cf. Brengman et al., 2019; De Gauquier et al.,
2020; De Keyser and Kunz, 2022). As social distancing measures 3. Mixed methods and theoretical foundations
inhibited in-person human social interactions to a large extent, the
COVID-19 pandemic even further amplified the rise of service robots The authors of the four articles in this special section used a rich mix
(Zeng et al., 2020; Willems et al., 2021). This special section is composed of research methods and relied on different original theories.
of a compilation of four valued studies on the topic. First, Meyer, Roth and Gutknecht (2023) conducted qualitative
In a first paper of this special section, Meyer et al. (2023) examined exploratory in-depth interviews with retail managers who had actual
how an often-neglected but decisive group of stakeholders, namely retail experience with the use of service robots in retail environments. Based
managers, perceive of service robots in organisational frontlines. They on their qualitative study they identify three dimensions of predisposing
present a theoretical framework integrating the manager’s perspective factors (i.e., drivers as well as barriers) on the functional, relational and
next to the viewpoints of customers and frontline employees. The find­ organisational level. The functional level comprises adoption anteced­
ings from their qualitative study reveal that retail managers recognize ents that relate to the service robots themselves (i.e., overcoming hur­
both the opportunities and the challenges arising from the adoption of dles in everyday interactions and contextual adaptability), the relational
service robots in retail frontlines, but also that they perceive inherent level concerns the impact on relations between different stakeholders
difficulties in balancing the needs of customers and frontline employees (relating to emotional burden and lack of knowledge), and the organ­
when it comes to effective SR implementation. isational level covers determinants of adoption relating to the entire

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2022.103177

Available online 29 October 2022

retail organisation and its structure (including the optimization of cost well (i.e., Meyer et al., 2023), while confronting it also with the FLE
structures, increase in sales opportunities, enhancement of service perspective, which is of major importance too (cf. Willems et al., 2022).
quality, uplift of firm image, but also inhibiting aspects related to role A multi-stakeholder perspective, including even the perspective of
congruency). While on the organisational level mostly drivers seem technology suppliers, is advised as a fruitful avenue for further research,
apparent, on the functional and relational levels mainly hurdles are as balancing the requirements of different stakeholders in this domain
noted. Furthermore, two dimensions of managerial coping strategies are seems to be quite a challenge. Second, while the topic of AI was also
identified, relating to transforming frontline employees (i.e., enabling explicitly mentioned in the call of our special section, only a limited
and empowering FLE) and transforming work routines (i.e., setting up number of rather preliminary submissions to our related special track
an evidence-based process and opening up to stakeholders’ ideas). pertained to AI. Nevertheless, the topic of AI in itself applied to retailing
Second, Merdin-Uygur and Öztürkcan (2023) conducted a series of and consumer services opens up a wide array of different research routes
studies, quantitative as well as qualitative, performed before as well as and is worth pursuing further (cf. Guha et al., 2021; Hentzen et al., 2021;
during the pandemic, providing as such a unique longitudinal view on the Buhalis, & Moldavska, 2021; Song et al., 2022).
changing attitudes towards service robots among Gen-Z consumers Regarding the specific papers in this special section, follow-up
during the corona crisis. The longitudinal nature of their study revealed studies are called for to validate the findings and establish boundary
that while attitudes towards service robots high in power vis-à-vis the conditions. The studies in this special section investigated robots in
human user (i.e., robotic surgery) remained stable during the COVID-19 different functions, situations and service contexts. Meyers et al. (2023),
pandemic, the more (initially) positive attitudes towards low-power for instance, focused particularly on managers in the retail sector, and
services (i.e., robotic airport check-in) deteriorated. could be extended to other service sectors, such as hospitality, tourism,
Third, Arikan et al. (2023) conducted two experiments in order to healthcare or education. It would be interesting to see which barriers
determine the impact of the service agent humanness or human likeness and challenges are sector-specific and which ones hinder the adoption
on consumer attributions of service failure and recovery responsibilities. and implementation of service robots across different service sectors and
Their findings reveal that consumers attribute more service failure re­ may need to be addressed with higher priority. Furthermore, Merdi­
sponsibility to the firm when the agent is less human-like. When the n-Uygur and Öztürkcan (2023) compared robotic airport check-in with
service agent is human, rather than robotic, consumers attribute more robotic surgery, Arikan et al. (2023) investigated robotic service failures
recovery responsibility to the agent and less to the firm. The results in a restaurant setting, and De Gauquier et al. (2023) examined product
furthermore also convey that failure (recovery) attribution to the firm recommendations offered by different types of service agents at a
reduces (enhances) consumer forgiveness and satisfaction. chocolate store in an airport setting. A logical sequel to these studies
Fourth, De Gauquier et al. (2023) conducted an unobtrusive field study would be to inspect whether the reported findings also hold true for
using video observations, spread over four between-subjects experimental other robot functions and in other retail or service contexts. Further­
conditions: (1) a control condition (i.e., no stimulus), (2) a frontline more, while a few personal consumer characteristics have been taken into
employee (i.e., only human social presence), (3) a humanoid service consideration in some of the studies in this special section (e.g.,
robot (i.e. only automated social presence), and (4) an employee-robot Merdin-Uygur and Öztürkcan looked at consumers’ perceived power
team (i.e. automated as well as human social presence). The conver­ and De Gauquier and colleagues revealed generational and gender dif­
sion power of the different service agents and their combination is ferences), there is still substantial room for examining the generaliz­
measured along the metrics of the point-of-sales (POS) conversion funnel, ability of the reported findings.
which allowed them to objectively verify their effectiveness in attracting
passers-by, eliciting store interest, evoking desire to enter the store, and
eventually converting them into actual buyers. Results indicate that the Acknowledgements
service robot was the better option to generate attention and stop
passers-by, but in this condition the least amount of passers-by were As track chairs and guest-editors, we are very thankful to the authors
lured into the store. While the frontline employee initiated the lowest for sharing their latest research findings at the 28th RARCS conference
number of interactions, he could convert the highest number of pass­ in Baveno in 2022, as well as to the reviewers providing valuable
ersby into actual buyers. The robot-employee team managed to feedback to further strengthen the initial submissions. Furthermore, we
encourage the highest number of passersby to look at the store but did are grateful to Harry J.P. Timmermans and Soora Rasouli, as editors-in-
not convert more of them into actual buyers than the robot on its own. chief of the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, for their sup­
Besides providing more theoretical insights, the studies bundled in port and encouragement in realizing the conference special track, and
this special section are valuable for retail and service managers upon this related special section in their well-respected journal. We hope that
deciding on the optimal level of technology infusion in the service you will enjoy reading this special section as much as we did managing
encounter, which is an important issue in an ever-changing digital the process to achieve this nice result.
world.
References
4. Future directions
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Regardless of the merits of the studies contained in this special sec­ service failure and recovery? The role of robot service provider agents’ human-
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