This study aims to integrate the heuristic-systematic model (HSM) and cognitive appraisal theory (CAT) to propose a comprehensive framework for understanding the continued intention to adopt service robots, with a focus on perceived coolness. It also explores the moderating role of face consciousness between perceived coolness and the continued adoption intention.
Survey data were collected from 381 respondents in the tourism and hospitality industry and analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling.
Robot anthropomorphism and intelligence, representing heuristic and systematic cues, respectively, significantly influence perceived coolness. These attributes also indirectly enhance customer delight through the partial mediating effect of perceived coolness. Perceived coolness directly influences continued adoption intention and indirectly affects it through customer delight. The positive effect of perceived coolness on continued adoption intention is stronger among customers with high face consciousness.
The findings have practical implications for enhancing customer adoption of service robots from a coolness perspective.
The theoretical contribution lies in developing an HSM-CAT integrated model to understand the continued intention to adopt service robots, enriching the causal framework of perceived coolness in the robot adoption context and revealing how face consciousness moderates the effect of perceived coolness on adoption intention.
