Customer experience quality with social robots: Does trust matter?

Although service providers increasingly adopt social robots, much remains to be learned about what influences customers' experiences with robots. To address this issue, this study investigates the relationships among customer equity drivers (i.e., value equity, brand equity and relationship equity), trust in social robots, and trust in service providers. Specifically, we hypothesize that customer equity drivers influence trust in social robots and trust in service providers. We also propose that customer equity drivers influence customer experience quality in the context of social robots and that trust in social robots and trust in service providers mediate these relationships. The study used a two-stage hybrid partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM)-artificial neural network (ANN) analysis to examine the proposed relationships. Findings show that while all the customer equity drivers influence trust in service providers, only brand and relationship equity influence trust in social robots. Results also suggest that trust in service providers mediates the relationship between customer equity drivers and customer experience quality. In addition, we find that consumers' trust in service providers helps generate trust in social robots. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.