My Cute Robot Colleagues: The Relation Between Robot Cuteness and Employee Service Performance
Chiyin Chen, Yuze Zhao, Xiaojun Wu, Yu-chau Lam · Academy of Management Proceedings · 2025
With the proliferation of service robots in the hospitality sector, there is a growing interest in their anthropomorphic design features that elicit positive emotional responses from users. This paper shifts the research focus from customer to employee perspectives to investigate the effects of perceived robot cuteness on employee service performance within service settings. We conducted Study 1, employing a survey approach across 11 branches of a hotel chain, and found that employees’ perceived robot cuteness was associated with their trust in the robot, which furthermore promoted their proactive service behaviors. Furthermore, we conducted Study 2, utilizing a scenario-based experimental approach, and confirmed that the relationship between employees’ perceived robot cuteness and their proactive service behaviors was sequentially mediated by their trust in robot and job security perceptions. Our study extends the literature on robot cuteness into the organization and workplace environments. Furthermore, it elucidates the mechanisms underlying the influence of perceived robot cuteness on employee outcomes, thereby contributing to the understanding of how digitalization-era factors influence employee proactive service behaviors.