| dc.description.abstract | Hotels represent an enormous potential for the implementation of service robots. However, prior literature on service robot integration in hotels focuses on literature from customer or employee perspectives. This shows a gap in that a comprehensive examination of the adoption drivers and challenges in hotels using media discussions has not been conducted. Thus, this study explores the popular media debates and discussions to understand the different drivers and barriers of service robot adoption, as well as the capabilities and roles of service robots in hotels.
This study adopts a qualitative research design to address the research questions. Data was collected from secondary sources, including 181 news articles from Google News and 91 transcripts of YouTube videos. The data were analyzed using inductive content analysis.
Findings indicate that the drivers of service robot adoption are labor shortages, COVID-19 impact, technological advancement, the need to enhance the guest experience, service robot acceptance, and increased operational efficiency. The results show that the main barriers to implementation are high cost, technical limitations, lack of human touch, customer resistance, data privacy, and job displacement issues. In addition, service robots have demonstrated how to navigate autonomously, recognize and communicate while taking different roles like room service delivery, concierge, porters, and housekeeping.
This study provides valuable support to hotel owners and managers in making data-driven decisions regarding the service robot implementation. Moreover, it can help service robot manufacturers such as Relay Robotics, in understanding the limitations and challenges of service robots in hotels. Equipped with this knowledge, robot manufacturers can address the limitations by developing service robots that specifically meet the requirements of hotels.
This thesis is the first empirical study to address media discourses regarding service robot integration barriers and drivers in hotels. In addition, the content analysis of the study provides an overview on the service robot capabilities and roles in hotels.
Keywords: Service robot, hotel, tourism and hospitality industry, content analysis, behavioral reasoning theory | |