YooHee Hwang

Papers

Total Citations

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About

YooHee Hwang is a rising scholar at the intersection of service management, human-robot interaction, and consumer psychology. Her research critically examines how travelers and consumers respond to service failures, particularly when the service provider is a robot versus a human employee. In her most-cited work, “When Robot (Vs. Human) Employees Say ‘Sorry’ Following Service Failure” (2021, 54 citations), Hwang uses experimental designs to reveal that the effectiveness of an apology depends on both the agent’s identity and the customer’s age—a finding with direct implications for hospitality and service automation. Her more recent study, “Trust and forgiveness in service: effects of single and double deviations with human and robot staff” (2025), extends this line of inquiry by exploring how repeated service failures erode trust and forgiveness differently across human and robotic staff. By bridging trust repair theory with emerging AI service contexts, Hwang’s work is shaping how businesses design recovery strategies in an increasingly automated world. Her contributions are especially valuable for students and practitioners navigating the ethical and practical challenges of deploying robots in frontline service roles.