Service robot failures in hospitality: understanding customer attribution of responsibility

Purpose This study aims to examine how various types of service robot failures affect customer attribution of responsibility across different contexts, including relationship norms (exchange vs communal) and social perceptions of service robots (competent vs warm). Design/methodology/approach The research comprised a series of four experimental studies complemented by a meta-analysis. Findings The results reveal a significant interaction between service robot failure types and relationship norms. Specifically, outcome (vs process) failures increase customer attribution of responsibility to robots under exchange relationships, whereas process (vs outcome) failures produce a similar effect under communal relationships. Furthermore, the authors identify an interaction between service robot failure types and robots’ social perception regarding responsibility attribution. In particular, customers are more likely to attribute responsibility to the robots themselves for outcome (vs process) failures in competent robots and for process (vs outcome) failures in warm robots. In addition, controllability attribution mediates these effects. Originality/value This research provides novel contributions to attribution theory and service robot literature by elucidating the boundary mechanisms through which robot failure types influence customer responsibility attribution.