The impact of service robot compatibility on hospitality employee learning behaviors: a transformative learning perspective

In the era of burgeoning artificial intelligence and robotics, the integration of robots within the hospitality sector has become a prevalent phenomenon. Despite this, scholarly attention has predominantly been directed toward the dynamics of robot-customer interactions, leaving a significant gap in our understanding of the impact of robots on employee learning behaviors. This study uses transformative learning theory to explore how robot compatibility influences employee learning. A PLS-SEM analysis of a survey of 347 hotel employees found that robot compatibility had a positive influence on employee explorative and exploitative learning. Both contextual intrinsic and extrinsic motivation partially mediated the effect of compatibility on employee learning behaviors. Robot awareness positively moderated the effect of compatibility on contextual motivation. The study's conclusions provide enlightenment for hospitality organizations to achieve improved employee-robot collaboration and value co-creation.