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Henkel, Alexander P.; Caic, Martina; Blaurock, Marah; Okan, Mehmet
Robotic transformative service research
Published in:
JOURNAL OF SERVICE MANAGEMENT
DOI:
10.1108/JOSM-05-2020-0145
Published: 15/08/2020
Document Version
Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record
Published under the following license:
CC BY
Please cite the original version:
Henkel, A. P., Caic, M., Blaurock, M., & Okan, M. (2020). Robotic transformative service research: Deploying
social robots for consumer well-being during COVID-19 and beyond. JOURNAL OF SERVICE MANAGEMENT,
31(6), 1131-1148. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-05-2020-0145
Robotic transformative service
research: deploying social robots
for consumer well-being during
COVID-19 and beyond
Alexander P. Henkel
Department of Organization and
Center for Actionable Research of the Open University (CAROU),
Open University of the Netherlands, Heerlen, The Netherlands
Martina
Cai
c
Department of Design and Architecture, School of Arts,
Aalto University, Espoo, Finland and
CERS - Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management,
Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland and
CTF - Service Research Center, Karlstad Universitet, Karlstad, Sweden
Marah Blaurock
Department of Marketing and Management, University of Hohenheim,
Stuttgart, Germany, and
Mehmet Okan
Faculty of Management, Artvin Coruh University, Artvin, Turkey
Abstract
Purpose – Besides the direct physical health consequences, through social isolation COVID-19 affects a
considerably larger share of consumers with deleterious effects for their psychological well-being. Two
vulnerable consumer groups are particularly affected: older adults and children. The purpose of the underlying
paper is to take a transformative research perspective on how social robots can be deployed for advancing the
well-being of these vulnerable consumers and to spur robotic transformative service research (RTSR).
Design/methodology/approach – This paper follows a conceptual approach that integrates findings from
various domains: service research, social robotics, social psychology and medicine.
Findings – Two key findings advanced in this paper are (1) a typology of robotic transformative service (i.e.
entertainer, social enabler, mentor and friend) as a function of consumers’ state of social isolation, well-being
focus and robot capabilities and (2) a future research agenda for RTSR.
Social robots
for consumer
well-being
1131
© Alexander P. Henkel, Martina
Cai
c, Marah Blaurock and Mehmet Okan. Published by Emerald
Publishing Limited. This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0)
license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both
commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and
authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/
legalcode
This paper forms part of a special section “The Coronavirus Crisis and Beyond: Implications for
Service Research and Practice”, guest edited by Dr. Volker G. Kuppelwieser and Dr. J
€
org Finsterwalder.
The authors want to express their gratitude to the organizers of the 2018 Let’s Talk About Service
(LTAS) workshop in Ghent (Belgium), and particularly Prof. Bart Larivi
ere, for facilitating the
collaboration that has led to this project. Further, the authors want to thank Niloofar Borghei Razavi for
her valuable feedback on an earlier draft of this paper.
Funding: This research was supported by the Province of Limburg, The Netherlands, under grant
number SAS-2019-00247 and the Foundation for Economic Development, Finland (lsr.fi).
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1757-5818.htm
Received 7 May 2020
Revised 12 June 2020
23 June 2020
Accepted 25 June 2020
Journal of Service Management
Vol. 31 No. 6, 2020
pp. 1131-1148
Emerald Publishing Limited
1757-5818
DOI 10.1108/JOSM-05-2020-0145
Practical implications – This paper guides service consumers and providers and robot developers in
identifying and developing the most appropriate social robot type for advancing the well-being of vulnerable
consumers in social isolation.
Originality/value – This study is the first to integrate social robotics and transformative service research by
developing a typology of social robots as a guiding framework for assessing the status quo of transformative
robotic service on the basis of which it advances a future research agenda for RTSR. It further complements the
underdeveloped body of service research with a focus on eudaimonic consumer well-being.
Keywords Social robots, Vulnerable consumers, COVID-19, Eudaimonic well-being, Robotic transformative
service research
Paper type Conceptual paper
COVID-19 acts as a major disruptive factor for service consumers. The concerted world-wide
quarantine measures that impose on consumers to live in social isolation have immediate and
long-term detrimental psychological health consequences (Brooks et al., 2020). These
negative effects are exacerbated for vulnerable consumer groups, particularly older adults
and children (Holmes et al., 2020). Even with easing of the COVID-19 measures, a significant
share of vulnerable consumers likely continues to live under restricted social contact and
suffers from durable negative psychological health outcomes (e.g. older adults who represent
a high-risk group; World Health Organization, 2020a ).
A promising avenue to counter the adverse consequences of social isolation for vulnerable
consumers is provided by the field of social robotics (e.g. de Graaf et al., 2015). Social robots
are physically embodied agents designed for assisting and engaging in social interactions
with humans in their everyday lives (Fong et al., 2003). An example is Pepper [1], a social robot
that can interact with humans through conversation and its touch screen. Social robots can
provide service to consumers without human interaction and may, thus, be deployed to create
uplifting changes for consumer well-being during COVID-19 and beyond.
Even though the past decade of service research has witnessed the foundation and surge of
how service can transform the well-being of consumers (Anderson, 2010; Anderson et al., 2013;
Anderson and Ostrom, 2015; Gustafsson et al., 2015), alongside an increasing accentuation of
the role of robots in service (
Cai
c et al.,2018; Mende et al.,2019; van Doorn et al., 2017; Wirtz et al.,
2018), a systematic integration of social robots and transformative service research (TSR) is still
in a nascent stage. As a consequence, the question of how social robots might assist vulnerable
consumers to attenuate, or even reverse the negative psychological health consequences of
social isolation and advance well-being, remains unaddressed.
The underlying paper draws from the fields of social robotics (e.g. de Graaf et al., 2015),
medicine (e.g. Hawkley; Cacioppo, 2010), social psychology (Ryan and Deci, 2001) and service
research (e.g. Anderson et al. , 2013) to derive interdisciplinary insights into how social robot
service may improve vulnerable consumer well-being when facing social isolation. In doing
so, it aims to contribute to service theory and practice by advancing a social robot perspective
of TSR: robotic TSR (RTSR), which we define as the integration of social robot and
transformative service research that focuses on well-being-relevant outcomes of consumer
and employee interactions with social robots. First, this study synthesizes findings from
social robotics based on a typology of robotic transformative service to derive an
understanding of the status quo and future potential of transforming vulnerable consumer
well-being in social isolation. Second, it extends this synthesis and identifies a future research
agenda for the newly identified sub-area of RTSR.
COVID-19 and social isolation
Extended periods of social distancing and isolation can seriously deteriorate the
psychological well-being of individuals (Brooks et al., 2020). The consequences of the
JOSM
31,6
1132
worldwide measures to combat COVID-19 force consumers into a deficiency of social contact
or objective social isolation (Hawkley and Cacioppo, 2010; Steptoe et al., 2013). Though few
individuals may lead solitary lives without feeling lonely, generally recent evidence
documents a significant predictive effect of social disconnectedness on subjective social
isolation (Santini et al., 2020). The latter is equated with loneliness or the distress concerning
the quality or quantity of one’s social relationships.
In particular, this subjective state of social isolation is associated with severe negative
implications for physical, psychological and cognitive health (Hawkley and Cacioppo, 2010).
Various longitudinal studies suggest subjective social isolation as a risk factor for physical
health deterioration and mortality (e.g. Cacioppo et al. , 2002; Holt-Lunstad et al., 2015; Steptoe
et al., 2013). Further, it is associated with increased moodiness and depression (Cacioppo et al.,
2006), faster cognitive decline and an intensified sensitivity to social threats (Bassuk et al.,
1999; Cacioppo and Hawkley, 2009 ). Subjective social isolation is most prevalent among
children and older adults (Pinquart and Sorensen, 2001), making them a particularly
vulnerable consumer group during COVID-19.
Vulnerable consumer needs and well-being
Consumer vulnerability can be described as “a state in which consumers are subject to harm
because their access to and control over resources are restricted in ways that significantly
inhibit their ability to function in the marketplace” (Hill and Sharma, 2020, p. 1). Thus, this paper
focuses on those consumers who are especially prone to suffer mental health consequences
during COVID-19; non-adolescent children before puberty and people of 65 years of age and
older (Holmes et al.,2020), which will be simply referred to as children and older adults in the
remainder of the paper (Kabadayi et al.,2020). Depending on their degree of agency and
autonomy, these groups may, particularly, struggle with accessing services that can help them
overcome suffering through resource losses (e.g. Henkel et al.,2017); hence, they both deserve
specific attention from service research and offer ample potential for service to positively
transform their well-being (Anderson et al., 2013). Accordingly, the World Health Organization
(2020b) emphasized the potential repercussions of COVID-19 measures on the mental health of
exactly these two vulnerable groups and advocated their guidance.
Research on well-being is broadly approached from one of two perspectives: hedonic and
eudaimonic (Ryan and Deci, 2001). Hedonic well-being is equated with pleasure and
happiness and often operationalized as satisfaction and positive affect or the absence thereof
(Diener, 2012
; Diener and Lucas, 1999 ). The eudaimonic form defines well-being along a set of
dimensions that promote meaning and self-realization (e.g. environmental mastery, personal
growth and positive social relations; Ryff, 1989) to advocate fully functioning individuals
(Rogers, 1963). Integrating both approaches, the underlying study explores the potential of
service to promote the well-being of vulnerable consumers. Depending on the circumstances
they are facing, vulnerable consumers may benefit most from services with an emphasis on
hedonic (e.g. entertainment) or eudaimonic (e.g. life-coaching) well-being in order for them to
overcome the negative consequences of social isolation and thrive in the marketplace. Yet,
particularly eudaimonic consumer needs may become significantly more pronounced during
periods of crises (Barnes et al., 2020). The next section discusses one particularly promising
angle of how service can achieve this goal by deploying social robots.
The transformative potential of social robots
As a consequence of COVID-19, human service delivery became potentially harmful or in its
extremes even lethal to both service providers and consumers (Miriri, 2020). Hence, a
particularly promising avenue for service research to support vulnerable consumers during
COVID-19 and beyond lies in social robot service. Social robots may increase consumers’
Social robots
for consumer
well-being
1133
access to and control over resources and decrease their vulnerability without violating
physical distancing or isolation in their pursuit of well-being (Henkel et al., 2017; Hill and
Sharma, 2020). Indeed, findings from social robotics in the context of vulnerable consumers
report various ways for social robots to promote well-being. For instance, robots that promote
social connectedness (e.g. telepresence robots and socially assistive robots) may decrease
objective and subjective social isolation for vulnerable consumers including older adults (e.g.
Robinson et al., 2014) and children (e.g. Moerman et al., 2019).
Prior research shows that social robots can function as emotional and social actors (
Cai
c
et al., 2019; de Graaf et al., 2015) with a clear transformative mission. They demonstrate social
behavior, following the norms of human social interaction (e.g. touch and emotional reactions;
Wang and Rau, 2019). With these abilities, social robots create social presence and are
perceived as social agents (van Doorn et al., 2017), particularly by children (Kahn et al., 2012)
and older adults (Heerink et al., 2009). There is ample evidence in the field of social robotics
that vulnerable consumers in social isolation not only promote hedonic (e.g. cheering up) but
also eudaimonic well-being. For instance, robots may stimulate environmental mastery and
personal growth through advancing communication skills and learning experiences (Baxter
et al., 2017; Crompton et al., 2018; Khaksar et al., 2019). They may also help to form positive
social relationships, such as assuming roles in socialization, companionship, developing
emotional relationships, comforting, coping with stress, anxiety and other negative emotional
experiences and supporting ties with other people (Ca
~
namero and Lewis, 2016; Crossman
et al., 2018; D’onofrio et al., 2019 ; Khaksar et al., 2016; Melson et al., 2009).
Robotic transformative potential in times of COVID-19 and beyond – a typology
This section synthesizes findings in the social robotics literature that are relevant for the well-
being of vulnerable consumers facing social isolation. Structuring the status quo and the
required future roles of transformative robotic service along three dimensions resulted in four
distinct types of robotic transformative service. As depicted in Figure 1, the types are a
function of (1) the predominant state of social isolation (i.e. objective vs. subjective), (2) the
desired or required well-being emphasis (i.e. hedonic vs. eudaimonic) and (3) robot physical
and psychosocial capabilities. As theorized here, the transformative potential of social robots
is dependent on future technological advancements, particularly for those consumers who
encounter severe subjective social isolation and who require structural support to attain
eudaimonic well-being goals. Importantly, the different types resemble the authors’
Figure 1.
A typology of robotic
transformative service
to counter social
isolation
JOSM
31,6
1134
