Andrea Ruggiero

Papers

Total Citations

235

H-Index

About

Andrea Ruggiero’s research sits at the vital intersection of service innovation, technology adoption, and societal well-being, with a particular focus on healthcare and aging populations. Her most impactful contribution is an integrative framework on mitigating loneliness with companion robots, developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. This seminal work, which has garnered over 200 citations, addresses the escalating “loneliness virus” and provides a crucial research agenda for deploying social robots to support mental health across age groups. Ruggiero further advances the field by exploring how cognitive assistants—such as intelligent agents and robots—function as boundary objects in value co-creation practices within healthcare. Her work on boundary work reveals how these technologies mediate interactions between patients, caregivers, and service providers, enhancing collaborative care for the elderly. By bridging service theory with practical technology implementation, Ruggiero’s research not only charts a path for using companion robots to combat isolation but also deepens our understanding of how intelligent systems reshape service ecosystems. Her work is essential reading for scholars and practitioners interested in the human-centered design and deployment of assistive technologies.