Abstract:
With the wide application of artificial intelligence in the hotel industry, service robots not only enhance the efficiency of service delivery and improve customer consumption experience but also trigger non-citizenship behavior of customers. In this context, inclusive service positioning of robots has become an important strategy for many hotels to guide customer citizenship behavior. Based on social identity theory and social response theory, four experiments were conducted to examine the promotion mechanism and boundary conditions of hotel robot inclusive service positioning on customer citizenship behavior. The results are as follows. (1) Compared with non-inclusive service positioning, inclusive service positioning could promote customer citizenship behavior. (2) The sense of social belonging mediated the impact of robot inclusive service positioning on customer citizenship behavior. (3) Robot empathy played a moderating role in the aforementioned relationships. For highly empathic robots, inclusive service positioning further stimulated customers’ sense of social belonging and promoted customer citizenship behavior. (4) The moderating effect of robot empathy was moderated by customer chronic regulatory focus. For defense-focused customers, the moderating effect of robot empathy disappeared. For promoting customer focus, the moderating effect of robot empathy was enhanced.