• Journal of Smart Tourism
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.5-13
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• 2023

Because of increasing anxiety about infectious diseases and the demand for contactless service caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become crucial for the tourism and hospitality sector to understand customers' psychological mechanism of contactless service during and post COVID-19. Thus, this paper proposes a conceptual model by integrating trust in the framework of the behavioral immune system. Interestingly, our study found that anxiety about infectious diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic has not only increased hotel customers' desire for contactless service and changed their behavioral intentions, but it has also impacted customers' trust in hotel service robots. Therefore, irrespective of how the hotel service environment changes, trust in technology has become the most fundamental factor for hotel customers' attitudes toward adopting technology. Based on the results, this paper provides salient theoretical and practical implications.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.60-68
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• 2023

After COVID-19, hotel industry is rapidly experiencing changes in the business environment, and under the influence of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, hotel industry is striving to secure competitive advantages through differentiation, including the use of big data and the IoT in service provision, as well as the introduction of artificial intelligence(AI) robot services. This study analyzed the perceived value of AI robot services and their impact on usage attitudes and behavioral intentions of customers who have used hotels that have introduced AI robot services. The results of the study showed that the value of robot services perceived by customers who have used robot services in hotels is categorized into three dimensions: social, experiential, and functional, and all of them have a positive effect on usage attitudes, with social, functional, and experiential values having a positive effect on usage attitudes in that order. Attitude toward use was also analyzed to have a positive effect on behavioral intention, which is consistent with the value-attitude-behavior model. Therefore, it is necessary for hotels to improve the satisfaction of hotel guests through diversified services of AI robot service.

• Smart Media Journal
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.172-172
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• 2023

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.92-100
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• 2004

A service robot is expected to be useful in indoor environment such as a hotel, a hospital and so on. However, many service robots are driven by wheels so that they cannot climb stairs to move to other floors. If the robot cannot use elevators. In this paper, the mobile manipulator system was developed, which can operate numeral buttons on the operating panel in the elevator. To perform this task, the robot is composed of an image recognition module, an ultrasonic sensor module and a manipulator. The robot can recognize numeral buttons and an end-effector in manipulator by the vision system. The Learning vector quantization (LVQ) algorithm is used to recognize the number on the button. The barcode mark on the end-effector is used to recognize the end-effector. The manipulator can push numeral buttons using informations captured by the vision system. The proposed method is evaluated by experiments.

• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.235-252
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• 2021

The development of information and communication technology and COVID-19 have caused an unusual change in the hotel industry, and the demand for the contactless services such as service robots from hotel customers has surged. Therefore, this study investigates the perception of hotel customers on contactless services by applying a mixed-method analysis. Specifically, this study identified the causal correlations between variables through the structural equation model, and further applied the fuzzy set qualitative comparison analysis to derive patterns of variables that form the intention to use the non-face-to-face services. As a result of the analysis, it was shown that service experience co-creation, palyfulness, personalization, and trust had a significant effect on intention to use through the contactless service use desire. On the other hand, in the results of fuzzy-set qualitative comparison analysis, playfulness was derived as a core factor in all patterns. Based on these analysis results, this study provides academic basis for in-depth understanding of hotel customers' perception of contactless service and specific guidelines for hotel managers on the contactless service strategies in the era of COVID-19 pandemic.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.57-75
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• 2024

Purpose: Nowadays, many restaurants use serving robots. Initially, many people thought that Covid-19 caused the spread of serving robots. However, even as the endemic, many restaurants still use serving robots. Therefore, this study examines why many customers choose restaurants with serving robots, using the UTAUT2 framework. Additionally, this study explores whether shyness has a moderating effect on these factors. Research design, data and methodology: Data were collected from 307 consumers who had visited a restaurant using a serving robot and analyzed using SmartPLS 4.0 software. A total of 286 datasets were analyzed. Result: We found that the precedence factors of UTAUT2 (Performance Expectancy, Effort Expectancy, Social Influence, Facilitating Condition, Hedonic Motivation) had a positive effect on attitude. Furthermore, attitude had a significant positive effect on Behavioral Intention. However, shyness did not appear to have a moderating effect among these factors. This is likely due to customers using serving robots for very short time, as identified in the literature review. Conclusions: As a result of this study, it was explained that Hedonic Motivation had the most significant positive effect on shaping attitudes toward restaurants using serving robots through the UTAUT2 model.