TY - JOUR
T1 - Consumers’ Ethical Perceptions of Autonomous Service Robots in Hotels
AU - Lin, Boyu
AU - Lee, Woojin
AU - Wise, Nicholas
AU - Choi, Hwansuk Chris
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - This study empirically and comprehensively explores consumers’ ethical perceptions of autonomous service robots (ASRs) in hotels. Under the triangulation approach, this study has identified eight themes of consumer perceived ethical issues (privacy, security, safety, transparency, fairness, socialization, autonomy, and responsibility). Each theme can be explained from two dimensions: ethical issues arise during the interaction (i.e., ubiquitous surveillance, excessive data, unidentified risks, service disclosure, inaccessibility, dehumanization, selection of services, and service recovery), and ethical issues can be raised by the characteristics of ASRs (i.e., privacy infringement, malicious use, malfunctions, untrustworthiness, biased features, job replacement, inflexibility, and self-identified solutions). This study is the first to propose ethical issues of ASRs from two dimensions with different intelligence levels, and to highlight ethical issues during hotel service interactions. The findings contribute to ethics studies of service robots from consumers’ perspectives and offer managerial insights to reduce ethical concerns and enhance ASRs usage in hotels.
AB - This study empirically and comprehensively explores consumers’ ethical perceptions of autonomous service robots (ASRs) in hotels. Under the triangulation approach, this study has identified eight themes of consumer perceived ethical issues (privacy, security, safety, transparency, fairness, socialization, autonomy, and responsibility). Each theme can be explained from two dimensions: ethical issues arise during the interaction (i.e., ubiquitous surveillance, excessive data, unidentified risks, service disclosure, inaccessibility, dehumanization, selection of services, and service recovery), and ethical issues can be raised by the characteristics of ASRs (i.e., privacy infringement, malicious use, malfunctions, untrustworthiness, biased features, job replacement, inflexibility, and self-identified solutions). This study is the first to propose ethical issues of ASRs from two dimensions with different intelligence levels, and to highlight ethical issues during hotel service interactions. The findings contribute to ethics studies of service robots from consumers’ perspectives and offer managerial insights to reduce ethical concerns and enhance ASRs usage in hotels.
KW - autonomous service robots
KW - consumer perceived ethical issues
KW - data triangulation
KW - robot ethics
KW - service interaction
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U2 - 10.1177/10963480231194693
DO - 10.1177/10963480231194693
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85169674186
SN - 1096-3480
JO - Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research
JF - Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Research
ER -