Employee-robot collaboration in services: psychological ownership, customer attributions and engagement

This research examines, through two studies, the relationship between psychological ownership triggers in service robots (perceived manipulability, receptiveness, and attractiveness) and customer engagement arising during service encounters where employee-robot collaboration occurs. Employing partial least squares, fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, and text analysis in two studies, this study demonstrates that manipulability, receptiveness, and attractiveness are positively related to customer engagement with the service robot, mediated by customer attributions of service enhancement. Customer attributions of cost reductions do not exert any influence during this process, either directly or indirectly. Results indicate that companies can activate psychological ownership feelings by properly combining robot design, service-level cues, and customer segments to ensure that customers find service robots manipulable, receptive, and attractive when they collaborate with humans.