Although human-robot collaboration (HRC) is increasingly becoming prevalent in the service industry, the impact of HRC on the employees’ work outcomes has been relatively underexplored. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, we aim to examine whether, how, and when HRC can enhance service performance of frontline employees (FLEs). To this end, we conducted an experimental study (Study 1) and a multi-wave survey (Study 2). We theorize that HRC can cognitively bolster FLEs’ confidence to undertake supplementary tasks (i.e., role breadth self-efficacy) and emotionally elicit pleasant feelings (i.e., positive emotions), which, in turn, enhances service performance. Our results support this view. Notably, our findings also reveal that employees’ trust in robots moderates the positive emotions mediated indirect effect of HRC on service performance. However, it does not significantly moderate the role breadth self-efficacy mediated indirect effect on service performance. Theoretical implications and practical recommendations are discussed.

中文翻译：

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人机协作对一线员工服务绩效的影响——资源视角


尽管人机协作 （HRC） 在服务行业越来越普遍，但 HRC 对员工工作成果的影响相对不足。借鉴资源保护理论，我们旨在研究 HRC 是否、如何以及何时可以提高一线员工 （FLE） 的服务绩效。为此，我们进行了一项实验研究（研究 1）和一项多波调查（研究 2）。我们推测，HRC 可以在认知上增强 FLE 承担补充任务（即角色广度自我效能感）的信心，并在情感上引发愉快的感觉（即积极情绪），这反过来又提高了服务绩效。我们的结果支持这一观点。值得注意的是，我们的研究结果还显示，员工对机器人的信任会调节 HRC 对服务绩效的积极情绪介导的间接影响。然而，它并没有显著调节角色广度自我效能介导的对服务绩效的间接影响。讨论了理论意义和实际建议。