Exploring the effects of innovation characteristics and resistance on hotel service robot acceptance: The moderating role of gadget affinity
The Tourism Sciences Society Of Korea, Hyun-Sung Cho, Sanghee Park · 2025
This study examined how the innovation characteristics of hotel service robots—relative advantage, perceived risk, complexity, and product improvement—affect customers' innovation resistance and acceptance intentions, and explored the moderating role of gadget affinity. Data were collected from October 1 to 20, 2024, through an online survey of customers with experience staying at luxury hotels in Korea. Out of 310 responses, 300 (96.7%) were used for the final analysis. The results indicated that product improvement and relative advantage significantly reduced innovation resistance, whereas perceived risk and complexity increased it. Higher innovation resistance decreased acceptance intentions toward hotel service robots. Customers with gadget affinity moderated the negative effects of complexity on innovation resistance and of innovation resistance on acceptance intentions. This study empirically validated the effects of four innovation characteristics in the context of hotel service robots and extended the theoretical framework by incorporating gadget affinity as a moderating variable. Additionally, the research provides strategies and implications for promoting service robot adoption in the hotel industry, establishing academic and practical foundations.