Engineering emotional bonds: how anthropomorphic design shapes guest-robot relationships in hospitality

Implementing service robots in the hospitality sector is unprecedentedly transforming and enhancing guest experiences. In this context, research on the impact of multiple anthropomorphic design cues remains scarce, revealing a void, especially regarding measuring its impact on love for these anthropomorphized service robots (SR). This work is grounded on the amalgam of the social response theory and the metaphor theory for studying the psychological frame of reference of human-robot interaction and its impact on consumer (anthropomorphic) robot relationships. The authors triangulate three methodologies, PLS-SEM, Necessary Condition Analysis, and Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis, to establish the critical antecedents for love for these anthropomorphic robots (representing a hospitality firm). A questionnaire (N = 579) was used to collect the data from respondents…