May robots be held responsible for service failure and recovery? The role of robot service provider agents' human-likeness

Abstract

This research investigates how consumers attribute service failure and recovery responsibilities and respond to them differently based on the service provider agent type (human, humanoid, and non-humanoid robot). Two experiments show that, first, consumers attribute more service failure responsibility to the firm when the agent is less human-like. Second, they attribute more recovery responsibility to the agent and less to the firm when those agents are human, rather than robots. Third, failure (recovery) attribution to the firm reduces (enhances) consumer forgiveness and satisfaction. This study identifies the impact of human-likeness and humanness on responsibility attribution processes in interaction with robotic and human agents.