Wow It’s a robot! Customer-motivated innovativeness, hotel image, and intention to stay at Chinese hotels

Building on the Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DIT), the present study examined the influence of consumer-motivated innovativeness on the overall image of a hotel with service robots and subsequently, the intention to stay at the hotel in China. Three dimensions of consumer-motivated innovativeness, i.e., functional, hedonic, and cognitive were measured. A total of 235 valid responses were collected and analyzed using SPSS 23 and SmartPLS 3.0 software. The findings supported the significant roles of the three consumer-motivated innovativeness dimensions on overall image as well as intention to stay. Overall image was found to mediate the effects of functionally and hedonically motivated innovativeness on intention to stay, but not for the effect of cognitively motivated innovativeness. These findings are consistent with the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), wherein overall image is used as a cue by individuals who are driven by functional and heuristic innovativeness, rather than those driven by cognitive innovativeness. The results contribute to a better understanding of consumer responses to the application of service robots as a marketing attraction and a management tool to improve operational efficiency.