Title: How important are service robots in today's hospitality landscape? A review and research guide

Authors: Mrinal Kanti Das; Soumya Mukherjee; Dipak Saha; Sayantan Dass

Addresses: Department of Commerce, Kanchrapara College, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, 743145, India ' School of Management Studies, Swami Vivekananda University, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700121, India ' Department of Management, Institute of Engineering and Management, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700091, India ' Computer Science and Engineering Department, Netaji Subhash Engineering College, Kolkata, West Bengal, 700152, India

Abstract: This study explores the impact of service robots on customer behaviour in the hospitality industry, focusing specifically on marketing - a perspective that has been underexplored in previous research. A contextualised literature review combined with bibliometric techniques was conducted through VOSviewer and R software, analysing 856 papers sourced from the Scopus database. Findings highlight a significant increase in scholarly interest in service robots after 2022. Key insights include identification of top authors, leading journals, highly cited papers, contributing organisations, influential countries, and thematic clusters. A detailed content analysis based on bibliographic networks further identifies critical research gaps. The use of both Systematic Literature Review and bibliometric techniques also adds a valuable methodological contribution. The research is limited to the marketing domain, suggesting opportunities for future studies to explore broader perspectives. Overall, this work contributes to the literature by guiding future research directions and enhancing the understanding of marketing implications in human-robot interaction.

Keywords: service robots; artificial intelligence; consumer behaviour; hospitality sector; customer experience; technology adoption; HRI; human-robot interaction.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSOI.2025.152328

International Journal of Services Operations and Informatics, 2025 Vol.13 No.2/3/4, pp.127 - 151

Received: 05 Sep 2024
Accepted: 24 Jun 2025
Published online: 16 Mar 2026 *

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