Research On The Impact Of The Dehumanization Of Tourism Service Providers On Consumption Emotions

With the continuous development of the economy and the acceleration of the aging of the population,it has not only restricted the supply of labor in the tourism industry,but also faced problems such as industrial upgrading.The rapid development of artificial intelligence technology and automation technology has brought new directions for the development of the tourism industry.On the basis of making up for the lack of employment caused by the aging of the population,smart tourism services which combined intelligent automation technology with traditional tourism services,provide customers with a free,convenient and efficient service experience,which has become a new trend in current tourism services.There are a large number of interpersonal interactions in traditional tourism services,such as interactions between inter-tourists,interactions between tourists and service providers,and so on.With the evolution of technology,except the interpersonal interaction as mentioned above,smart tourism services also include the interaction between tourists and travel Apps,smart electronic devices,smart robots and other forms of human-computer interaction.It can be said that human-computer interaction has become a part of the tourist experience in smart tourism services.Dehumanized smart service,as a special form of smart service,refers to services provided entirely by artificial intelligence technology.The dehumanization of service providers is the main difference among dehumanized smart services,general smart service and traditional intra-personal services.The dehumanization of service providers as an important part of dehumanized smart services,it can impact the service results.A large number of studies have shown that what tourists ultimately pursue is a sense of subjective well-being,that is,more positive emotions and less negative emotions.Therefore,whether the service is provided by dehumanized service provider can bring tourists more positive emotions and less negative emotions during the service as the service is provided by traditional human server is an issue that needs pay more attention for the in-depth development of dehumanized smart services.For dehumanized smart services,what are tourists’ dehumanized cognition dimensions of service providers? What impact does the dehumanization of service providers have on tourists’ consumption sentiment? What internal mechanism does the dehumanization of service providers influence tourists’ consumption emotions? It has great significance for tourism companies to apply and manage dehumanized intelligent services by understanding these issues.In view of this,this study based on the context of smart tourism to explore the impact of the dehumanization of service providers(service robot vs.human sever)on tourists’ consumption emotions in service processes and its underlying mechanism,and on this basis,to discuss the different effects of tourists’ intergenerational differences,perceived interpersonal pressure and social norms on consumption emotions.First of all,this study summarized the related research on consumption emotions and dehumanized smart services,and reviewed the use and gratification theory,self-determination theory and the dual model of dehumanization to propose the conceptual model and research hypothesis of this study combined the findings of the qualitative research.That is,the relationship between dehumanized service providers and tourists’ consumption emotions,the mediating role of tourists’ moral disengagement level and autonomy in service process,and the moderating role of tourists’ intergenerational differences,perceived interpersonal pressure and social norms in service environment.Specifically,compared with human servers,tourists tend to associate service robots with "indifference","hard" and "cold"(rather than "soft" and "warm"),since service robots are usually made of metal materials(such as steel)rather than soft materials(such as fur).In addition,the appearance of service robots widely used in the tourism industry is far from the appearance of human servers,which makes tourists easily to have “outer-group”cognition on service robots.Therefore,it makes service robots are more easily to stimulate tourists’ high moral disengagement in the service process,and lead tourists concerned less about the feelings of service providers and pay more attention to their own needs in the service process.Tourists who have higher autonomy in the service process are more likely to have positive consumption emotions(more positive emotion,less negative emotion)in the service process.However,the positive impact of service robots on consumption emotions has boundary condition,that is,interpersonal pressure and social norms in the service environment.Compared to the humanized service provider(human server),dehumanized service provider(service robot)can better meet tourists’ autonomous needs in service process to have more positive consumption emotions when tourists perceived the service environment has no interpersonal pressure.There is no significant difference in the impact of service providers’ dehumanization on tourists’ consumption emotions when they perceived the interpersonal pressure in service environment.Also,there is no significant difference in the impact of service providers’ dehumanization on tourists’ consumption emotions when they perceived the social norms of fellow customers in the service environment.In addition,since tourists’ consumption emotions in the service process are related to their dehumanizing cognition of service providers,tourists’ own characteristics can also impact their consumption emotions.Therefore,this study proposes that,compared with humanized service provider(human server),dehumanized service provider(service robot)can enhance the consumption emotions of "Internet natives" tourists;while tourists of "Internet immigrants" are unfamiliar with technology,the dehumanization of service providers has a weaker influence on their consumption emotions.Therefore,compared with human servers,service robots will not significantly enhance the consumption emotions of "Internet immigrants" tourists.Later,this study takes the potential tourists of smart tourism services as the research object,and adopted scenario-based experiments and laboratory experiments to test the conceptual model and related hypotheses of the research.This study proposed the following conclusions through seven experiments in six groups:(1)The dehumanization of service providers have significant effects on tourists’ consumption emotions.Compared with human servers,service robots have positive effect on tourists’ positive emotions and negative effect on tourists’ negative effect in service process.(2)Tourists’ degree of moral disengagement in service process plays a mediating role in the impact of the dehumanization of service providers on the satisfaction of tourists’ autonomous needs.Specifically,compared with human servers,service robots can stimulate tourists’ high moral disengagement level in service process and significantly improve the satisfaction of tourists’ autonomous needs in the service process.(3)Tourists’ degree of moral disengagement and satisfaction of autonomous needs in service process play a continuous mediating role in the process of the impact of the dehumanization of service providers on tourists’ consumption emotions.Specifically,compared with human servers,service robots are more easily to stimulate tourists’ high moral disengagement in service process,improve the satisfaction of tourists’ autonomous needs,and further increase tourists’ positive emotions and reduce tourists’ negative emotions.(4)Tourists’ intergenerational differences is the boundary condition of the impact of the dehumanization of service providers on consumption emotions.Although compared with “Internet immigrant”(post-80 s,post-70s)tourists,“Internet native”(post-90 s,post-00s)tourists have higher positive emotions during the service process,there is no significant impact of the dehumanization of service providers on tourists’ positive emotions when tourists are “Internet native”.(5)The interpersonal pressure in service environment is the boundary condition of the impact of the dehumanization of service providers on consumption emotions.The dehumanization of service providers can only impact tourists’ consumption emotions in the service environment where tourists do not perceive interpersonal pressure.For tourists who perceive interpersonal pressure,the dehumanization of service providers has no significant impact on tourists’ consumption emotions.(6)The social norm of fellow customer in service environment is the boundary condition of the impact of the dehumanization of service providers on the degree of tourists’ moral disengagement level in service process.Specifically,the dehumanization of service providers can only impact tourists’ moral disengagement level when tourists do not perceive the service environment with social norms.For tourists who perceive the social norms from fellow customers,the dehumanization of service providers has no significant impact on tourists’ degree of moral disengagement in service process.This study has several theoretical contributions to related research fields and some practical implications for tourism companies to apply and manage dehumanized service providers.In theoretical contribution,this study from the perspective of dehumanization to explore the impact of the dehumanization of service providers on consumption emotions which critically responds to the conclusions of existing research focusing on the anthropomorphic perspective of service robots and enriches the research on dehumanization cognition in smart tourism service.Secondly,this study adopts the use and satisfaction theory to examine the satisfaction of autonomous needs brought from simply use/touch the agent,which broadens the application scope of the use and satisfaction theory.Furthermore,this study starts from the non-physical environmental factors in service environment,and proposes new situational factors that can influence consumption emotions,which fills the gaps in existing research.In practical implications,the findings of this study can guide the design of service robots.For example,companies can emphasize the dehumanization cues of service robots during the design and increase the “animal-like”design to improve tourists’ dehumanization cognition of service robots and perceived biomimicry.Also,the findings of this study can provide corresponding suggestions for tourism companies to optimize the service process of service robots and offer evidence for the intelligent layout of the tourism industry from multiple perspectives.