Understanding the Robotic Restaurant Experience: A Multiple Case Study

摘要

The purpose of this study is to investigate the robotic restaurant experience of travellers around the world and understand the components of robotic restaurant experience. Following this aim, travellers who had experienced a robotic restaurant were purposefully selected as a sample group for the study. Since the robotic restaurants are limited around the world, multiple case study method has been chosen to gather richer data. A user-generated content technique which is a form of qualitative case study method has been benefited. The data of this study were gathered between 18-29 November 2019 from travellers’ reviews (n=587) describing experiences they had between February 2013-November 2019. The results reveal a model of components of robotic restaurant experience that include seven main themes: attraction for kids, robotic system, service quality, memorable experience, ambience related attributes, food related attributes (economic value and gastronomic aspects), and deficiencies (in robotic system, in service quality, in ambience related attributes and in food related attributes). This paper is first to investigate the robotic restaurant experience of travellers around the world. Moreover, it contributes to the research on restaurant experience and offers a model of components of the robotic restaurant experience.