Managing Robotics in Retail: A Service Systems Perspective (Markt- und Unternehmensentwicklung Markets and Organisations)

This book answers the question of how to manage service robots in brick-and-mortar dominated retail service systems to allow for key stakeholders’ adoption and to foster value co-creation. It starts by demonstrating the scientific relevance of the topic as well as deriving a set of promising research questions. After introducing service-dominant logic as a theoretical research lens and elucidating service systems along with their underlying concept of value co-creation as relevant key concepts, five studies are presented. The author ́s findings show that understanding and differentiating between consensus, shared and idiosyncratic drivers of and barriers to the adoption of service robots in retail service systems by all key stakeholders, i.e. customers, frontstage employees, and retail managers, is crucial to be able to fully cope with the complexity inherent in the adoption of service robots in service organizations. Moreover, the designed and evaluated artifact fosters a paradigm shift from a one-time technology introduction to a continuous technology management approach including iterations of experimenting, piloting, and implementing. Foreword Abstract Contents Abbreviations List of Figures List of Tables Part I Introduction—Motivation and Research Setting 1 Motivation 2 Relevance 3 Overall Research Design 3.1 Research Questions 3.2 Research Approach 4 Structure of the Dissertation Part II Theoretical Background—Service Robots in Retail Service Systems 5 Goal and Structure 6 Service-Dominant Logic as a Research Lens 6.1 Understanding Retail Functions 6.2 Contrasting Transaction Cost Theory and Service-Dominant Logic 6.3 Value Co-Creation from a Service-Dominant Logic Perspective 7 Service Systems as a Unit of Analysis 7.1 Understanding Service Systems 7.2 Defining the Retail Service System 8 Frontstage Service Technology Adoption 8.1 Traditional Theories of Technology Acceptance/Resistance 8.1.1 Technology Acceptance Theories 8.1.2 Technology Resistance Theories 8.2 Contemporary Service Robot Acceptance Models 8.3 Shortcomings of Current Technology Acceptance/Resistance Theories 9 Conclusion and Summary Part III Understanding Service Robots—Create a Knowledge Base 10 Goal and Structure 11 Towards a Definition for Service Robots 12 Sub-study 1a: State of Technology 12.1 Research Design: Adapted Task-technology fit Approach 12.1.1 Preparation 12.1.2 Data Collection and Analysis 12.2 Findings 13 Sub-study 1b: State of Knowledge 13.1 Research Design: Systematic Literature Review 13.1.1 Data Collection 13.1.2 Data Analysis 13.2 Findings 14 Discussion and Implications 14.1 Theoretical Implications 14.2 Managerial Implications 15 Conclusion and Summary Part IV Understanding Customers—Interact with Service Robots 16 Goal and Structure 17 Conceptual Background: Customers’ Access to Value Propositions 18 Sub-study 2a: Experimental Field Study 18.1 Research Design 18.1.1 Preparation of Service Robot use Cases 18.1.2 Data Collection 18.1.3 Data Analysis 18.2 Findings 19 Sub-study 2b: Exploratory Interview Study 19.1 Data Collection 19.2 Data Analysis 19.3 Findings 19.3.1 The Functional level 19.3.2 The Relational Level 19.3.3 The Organizational Level 20 Sub-study 2c: Short Survey and Questionnaire 20.1 Data Collection 20.2 Data Analysis 20.3 Findings 21 Sub-study 2d: Scale Development 21.1 Data Collection 21.2 Data Analysis 21.3 Findings 22 Discussion and Implications 22.1 Theoretical Implications 22.1.1 The Functional Level 22.1.2 The Relational Level 22.1.3 The Organizational Level 22.2 Managerial Implications 23 Conclusion and Summary Part V Understanding Frontstage Employees—Work with Service Robots 24 Goal and Structure 25 Conceptual Background: Frontstage Service Technologies 25.1 Frontstage Service Technologies and Frontstage Employees 25.2 The Impact of Service Robots on Service Interactions 26 Sub-study 3a: Exploratory Interview Study 26.1 Data Collection 26.2 Data Analysis 26.3 Findings 26.3.1 The Functional Level 26.3.2 The Relational Level 26.3.3 The Organizational Level 27 Sub-study 3b: Scale Development 27.1 Data Collection 27.2 Data Analysis 27.3 Findings 28 Discussion and Implications 28.1 Theoretical Implications 28.1.1 The Functional Level 28.1.2 The Relational Level 28.1.3 The Organizational Level 28.2 Managerial Implications 29 Conclusion and Summary Part VI Understanding Retail Managers—Leverage Service Robots 30 Objective and Structure 31 Conceptual Background: Retail Managers’ Boundary Role 32 Research Design: Exploratory Interview Study 32.1 Data Collection 32.2 Data Analysis 33 Findings 33.1 Antecedents to the Adoption of SRs 33.1.1 The Functional Level 33.1.2 The Relational Level 33.1.3 The Organizational Level 33.2 Responses to the Adoption of SRs 33.2.1 Transforming Frontstage Employees 33.2.2 Transforming Work Routines 34 Discussion and Implications 34.1 Theoretical Implications 34.1.1 The Functional Level 34.1.2 The Relational Level 34.1.3 The Organizational Level 34.2 Managerial Implications 35 Conclusion and Summary Part VII Orchestrating Retail Service Systems—Manage Service Robots 36 Goal and Structure 37 Conceptual Background: Synthesized Key Insights 37.1 Adoption Strategies 37.2 Conflicting Goals 37.3 Conflicting Potentials 38 Research Design 39 Requirement Derivation 39.1 Design Principles for the Artifact MARIE 39.2 Shortcomings of Current Technology Adoption Process Models 40 Initial Design of the Artifact MARIE 40.1 The Global Level 40.2 The Detailed Level 41 Evaluation of the Artifact MARIE 41.1 Phase 1: Artificial-Formative Evaluation 41.2 Phase 2: More Naturalistic-Formative Evaluation 42 Discussion and Implications 42.1 Theoretical Implications 42.2 Managerial Implications 43 Conclusion and Summary Part VIII Concluding—Reflect Findings and Implications 44 Objective and Structure 45 Summary of Parts I–VII 45.1 Creating a Basis (Part I–III) 45.2 Understanding Key Stakeholders (Part IV–VI) 45.3 Orchestrating Retail Service Systems (Part VII) 46 Reflect Findings and Implications 46.1 Implications for Academia 46.2 Limitations and Future Research 47 Concluding Remarks References