Exploring the antecedents of customers’ willingness to use service robots in restaurants.

This study examines the willingness of customers to accept, and their intention to recommend, the services provided by service robots in restaurants. A mixed-methods research approach was taken to evaluate a theoretical model based on behavioural reasoning theory (BRT). The results demonstrated the important influence of positive attitudes and objections to the use of service robots on consumers’ willingness to use service robots, as well as their intention to recommend restaurants that use them. Among the main aspects that affect attitudes and objections, we found hedonic perceptions, perceived safety, interaction quality perception and anthropomorphism.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBUA. This research was supported by the Andalusian Plan for Research, Development and Innovation (PAIDI) of the Andalusian Government (Grant: Research Group SEJ-567) (Spain)