ENTER2020 eTourism Conference presentation

1. Service Robots and the Changing
Roles of Employees in Restaurants:
A Cross Cultural Study
Aarni Tuomia
Iis Tussyadiaha
Jason Stienmetzb
SURREY
aUniversity of Surrey, UK
bModul University Vienna, Austria
January 8th 2020

2. Agenda
• Literature review
• Research Aims
• Methods
• Findings
• Discussion
• Future Research
SURREY January 8th 2020

3. • “System-based autonomous and adaptable interfaces that interact,
communicate and deliver service to an organization’s customer”
(Wirtz et al., 2018)
• Back-of-House robotics
• E.g. Creator, Spyce
• Front-of-House robotics
• E.g. Penny, Gen BBQ
• A combination of both
• E.g. Café X, Henn-na Café
SURREY
Food Service Robotics
January 8th 2020

4. SURREY
Food Service Robotics
Creator
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5. SURREY
Food Service Robotics
Bear Robotics/Penny
January 8th 2020

6. SURREY
Food Service Robotics
Cafe X
January 8th 2020

7. Roles of employees in technology-mediated service encounters (Bowen,
2016)
• Enabler
• Coordinator
• Differentiator
• Innovator
Technology adoption varies between cultures (Griffith, Hu and Ryans, 2000)
• Type 1 culture: individualistic, weak uncertainty avoidance, low long-
term orientation
• Type 2 culture: collectivistic, strong uncertainty avoidance, high long-
term orientation
SURREY
Employee Roles & Culture
January 8th 2020

8. ➔ To explore the current use of service robotics in restaurant service
encounters
➔ To explore changes in the roles of service employees as a result of
robotisation
➔ To compare the use and subsequent change in role in two culturally
distinct contexts (types)
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Research Aims
January 8th 2020

9. Emerging phenomenon >> exploratory qualitative approach
Purposive sampling
• Type 1 culture: the US
• Type 2 culture: Japan
Data collection
• Observations: 22 restaurants, 4 hours on average
• Semi-structured interviews: 8 (managers, roboticists), 45 min on
average
SURREY
Methods
January 8th 2020

10. SURREY
Findings
January 8th 2020

11. ● The two most prevalent roles observed
○ Helping customers use technology
○ Resolving problems of self-service
“Instead of waiters we have hosts who are there to help customers
through the self-ordering process.” -Founder, US
“Our concept requires humans to be hidden from the customers -
otherwise it would not feel like a robot restaurant. But we have
employees who check with surveillance, through hidden cameras, that
everything is okay.” -General Manager, Japan
SURREY
Enabler and Coordinator
January 8th 2020

12. ● Common roles observed
○ Service robots used to support staff
○ More time spent in sections, more interaction with guests
“I think that [by implementing robotics] we’ve actually increased our
hospitality.” -Restaurant Manager, Japan
“Instead of doing the same mindless tasks over and over, I can now
focus on making customers enjoy themselves more by giving them
recommendations and sharing my knowledge. It feels good to be the
expert” -Front-of-House Manager, US
“We wanted to make healthy food affordable [...] to increase
awareness on the consequences of our everyday choices.” -Founder, US
SURREY
Differentiator and Educator
January 8th 2020

13. ● The least observed role
Japan: strict managerial hierarchy seemed to prohibit front-line
employees from bringing forth ideas of improvement
US: acting on employees feedback emphasised, but when prompted
for actual examples of real changes made, no response
SURREY
Innovator
January 8th 2020

14. SURREY
Discussion
Japan US
Emphasis on Enabler and Coordinator Emphasis on Enabler, Differentiator,
Educator
Employee role often covert Employee role mostly overt
Move from traditional customer service towards supervision and surveillance
Adoption of tech driven by government
initiatives
Adoption of tech driven by individual
businesses
Need for sector-specific parameters for human-robot interaction and integration
that take into account national, global, as well as cultural connotations
January 8th 2020

15. • Advent of service robotics transform employee roles in restaurants
• Cultural context impacts the way in which employee roles manifest in
robotised service encounters
“We still employ around nine to 10 people per location, which is about
as much as a normal restaurant” -Restaurant Manager, US
“I see staffless restaurants dystopian” -Founder, US
“Our purpose is not to eliminate jobs, but to make the job better, to
create new jobs, and to create a new experience for customers” -
General Manager, Japan
SURREY
Conclusion
January 8th 2020

16. Aarni Tuomi
a.tuomi@surrey.ac.uk
@aarnilmari
aarnituomi.wordpress.com
SURREY
Thank you!
January 8th 2020

17. • More research needed on the implications of food service robotics
on HR: recruitment, training, career progression, retention, as well as
hospitality management education..
• ..Not to mention customer experience/outcomes, marketing, tourism
economics, etc. etc. For a comprehensive look at research gaps, cf.:
● Ivanov, S., Webster, C. (2019) Robots in tourism: a research agenda for tourism
economics. Tourism Economics.
● Ivanov, S., Gretzel, U., Berezina, K., Sigala, M., Webster, C. (2019) Progress on robotics
in hospitality and tourism: a review of the literature. Journal of Hospitality and
Tourism Technology.
SURREY
Future Research
January 8th 2020