Rumeng Zhang
Papers
1
Total Citations
37
H-Index
1
About
Rumeng Zhang is a rising scholar at the intersection of service marketing, human-robot interaction, and emotional labor. Her research critically examines how frontline employees manage emotional displays during service recovery, particularly in the wake of robot service failures. In her most-cited work, "Robot service failure: the double-edged sword effect of emotional labor in service recovery" (2022, 37 citations), Zhang reveals that employees' emotional labor—whether surface acting or deep acting—has a nuanced, double-edged impact on customer satisfaction, depending on how customers attribute responsibility for the failure. This study, grounded in scenario-based experiments, offers actionable insights for service firms navigating the growing integration of AI and human staff. Zhang’s work stands out for bridging the gap between automation and human emotional work, a timely contribution as robots become ubiquitous in hospitality and retail. Her findings challenge simplistic views of emotional labor, showing that authenticity matters most when customers blame the robot, but strategic performance can still salvage satisfaction. With her focus on real-world service dynamics, Zhang is shaping how we understand recovery strategies in an increasingly automated world.
Research Focus
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Top Papers
- 1