Ph.D. Research Proposal: Are AI-enabled Robots as Effective as Human Frontline Service Employees?

Ph.D. Research Proposal
Doctoral Program in Business, information and Marketing
Creativity, Engagement, and Performance: Are AI-enabled Robots as Effective as Human
Frontline Service Employees
Advisor:
Advisor: Dr Patrick Van Esch
Central Queensland University (Sydney)
Business school
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1) Background to the research and research Question (S) to be investigated
The main focus of the research is to identify whether a robot could be engaged as a
frontline service employee and could also be as creative as the human frontline service
employees or not. With the same, it also tries to identify whether a robot can handle a
confused, frustrated and difficult customer or not and tries to find out whether a frontline
service employee need to gain creativity for serving a customer. It is to be noted that
customer service is regarded as one of the most complicated differentiators of customer
loyalty. This is due to the fact that almost 33% of the total Americans claim that a single poor
customer service could make the customers switch to other companies (Puneet Mehta 2018).
The customer service job engagement and creativity are very important in such competitive
markets. It is also to be mentioned that the employee creativity aids towards attaining
organisational effectiveness, performance and innovation (Amabile et al. 1996). This is
especially true for the frontline employees who require to demonstrate their creativity for
delivering excellent services that help in meeting the customers’ expectations of different
wants and needs (Wilder, Collier, and Barnes 2014). As per Amabile (1988), creative process
is a very vital element for the individuals in organization as it help them in problem-solving
and also in efficient dealing in their work so that they can avoid confusions and can attain
excellent results. The frontline employees often experience several unexpected situations. For
instance, when the customers see a good range of product variety and gain some extensive
information related to the products and services, they become confused and stressed to make
the right choice and find it difficult to take decision. In these cases, the help of the service
employees increases customer satisfaction and at the same time, the possibility of buying the
product increases (Huffman and Khan 1998). Also, frontline employees who show high
degree of enthusiasm and engagement in their work make use of their creativity in providing
better solution to end customers. This in turn leads to the success for the organisational
financial conditions (Schneider, Macey, and Barbara 2009).
However, in case of elderly customers, it could result in destructiveness, if they are to
interact with the robots as the main frontline service employees. By 2060 the population of
the elderly people might grow to 28% from 18%. The elderly population have the highest
sensitivity to the new technologies. They may find it difficult to face robots as frontline
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service employees (Smith 2015, European Commission and the Economic Policy Committee
(2015). The employees who work in the service industry need to have good ideas regarding
the needs of customers. They should work to increase their level of engagement with the
customers and should also look after the firms for providing better service to the customers
for achieving the major organizational outcomes. They should recognize and fulfill each and
every needs of the customers (Homburg, Wieseke, and Torsten 2009). This would value more
than just focusing on the immediate sales. These employees should think more feasibly and
creatively for helping the heterogeneous customers in their buying decisions. They should
also focus in improving their potential of identifying and reacting to the needs of the
customers before customers verbalise them. They should also work when the service robots
do not showcase the heterogeneity and behave identical all over the system of service
delivery by providing homogenous service and solution (Wirtz et al. 2018). Echterhoff et al.
(2009) states that customers are more reliable on others in making their purchase decisions
because people have tendency to share their ideas and experience with others.
The research question for this project is to investigate whether AI-enabled Robots can be as
Effective as Human Frontline Service Employees where creativity and engagement of
frontline service employees is essential to help customers or not. Driven by advanced
technology some firms are replacing robots as human frontline service employees, but
enough study has not been done yet to examine whether a robot can be as creative and
engaged as a human and can handle heterogenous customers who have different needs
effectively.
2) What is the anticipated significance and/or impact of the proposed research?
The main aim of this research is identifying the significant impact of robot in the
service marketing as well as to give strategic guidelines for overcoming the challenges of the
robotic entry in the service marketing as frontline service employees. The elder individuals
often think robotic technology is a threat. For example, this research study is aiming towards
finding out whether it is possible for robot to become as creative as human or not in
comforting the elderly customers in their shopping needs. Hence, the firms need focus on
providing more facilities and indulge more positive feelings in increasing the perceptions of
the advantages and the comforts of the customers. Notwithstanding this fact, the rapid
technology improvement is transforming all service sectors and they are becoming smarter,
better, and cheaper (Wirtz and Zeithaml, 2018). The most important impact of the idea of
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