Exploring customers' reuse intention to robots under different service failures: A mind perception perspective.

Area of Science:

• Service Management
• Artificial Intelligence
• Consumer Behavior

Background:

• Robot service failures are common and impact customer experience.
• Understanding these failures is crucial for service managers.
• Existing research lacks a specific classification for robot service failures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To classify robot service failures from a consumer perspective.
• To examine the impact of failure types on reuse intention.
• To investigate the roles of negative emotions and anthropomorphism.

Main Methods:

• Mixed-methods approach using online reviews and behavioral experiments.
• Study 1: Word co-occurrence network analysis of service failure reviews.
• Studies 2 & 3: Sentiment analysis, regression, and experimental validation.

Main Results:

• A two-dimensional classification: agential and experiential failures.
• Agential failures have a stronger negative impact on reuse intention, mediated by negative emotions.
• Anthropomorphism exacerbates negative consequences, particularly for experiential failures.

Conclusions:

• Robot service failures possess unique dimensions distinct from human service failures.
• Agential failures require different recovery strategies than experiential failures.
• Findings offer practical insights for managing AI-powered services and customer recovery.