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Service Robots in Post-COVID Era

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Tourism, Culture, and Heritage".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2024) | Viewed by 6067

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Liberal Arts, Macau University of Science and Technology, Macau, China
Interests: urbanization and tourism development; corporate social responsibility; consumer behavior and social media; entertainment and cultural tourism

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Guest Editor
School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
Interests: digital experience; educational technology; film and animation; interactive entertainment; service design

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Guest Editor
Asia-Pacific Academy of Economics and Management, Department of Integrated Resort and Tourism Management, Faculty of Business Administration, University of Macau, Macau, China
Interests: smart tourism; website evaluation and eWOM analysis; technology management and applications; computer-assisted education
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This is an open call for potential submissions to a Special Issue of Sustainability on the topic of “Service Robots in Post-COVID Era”. Service robots are becoming increasingly popular in the hospitality and tourism industry. The demand to provide contactless services to consumers (e.g., robot concierge, robotic food ordering and delivery) further accelerates the adoption of service robots. Regarding the highly transmissive nature of COVID-19, it is suggested that the implementation of service robots can serve as an effective measure for creating sufficient social distance in the close-contact services between frontline staff and customers. The successful adoption of service robots in hospitality would therefore provide a great degree of reassurance for both customers and employees. Additionally, considering the reduction of the number of hotel employees and their strong turnover intention during COVID-19, the implementation of service robots could serve as a timely alternative for the much-needed manpower in the hospitality and tourism industry while protecting both customers and staff. What will be next for service robots in post-COVID era?

Proposed abstracts should be submitted to the Special Issue Guest Editors for initial consideration. Please send a 500-word (maximum) abstract that describes previously unpublished work. The document should also include each author's name, email address, affiliation, and 50-word biographical statement. If abstracts are accepted, we will invite authors to submit full-length articles for peer review. It is essential that abstracts are based on projects that have already completed data collection to ensure a timely delivery of the Special Issue. All articles will be double-blind reviewed. This Special Issue aims to provide an international forum for researchers to exchange the latest achievements in service robots and their various applications to address the main challenges facing hospitality and tourism services in the future. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Topics:

  1. Development of service robots in smart hospitality and tourism;
  2. Big data analysis for hospitality and tourism management;
  3. AI privacy protection in smart hospitality and tourism;
  4. Smart service solutions for hospitality and tourism;
  5. The role of service robots in improving service efficiency;
  6. Sustainable service robot applications;
  7. Integrating smart service with hospitality and tourism environment;
  8. Novel techniques and methods for removing challenges in the digitalization of service systems in hospitality and tourism;
  9. Innovative approaches to novel digital technologies and AI applications aimed at future-proofing solutions in hospitality and tourism;
  10. Application of new advanced smart services.

If you have any queries, please contact the editors (please include all editors in correspondence to ensure a timely reply over the summer period).

Prof. Dr. Jian Ming Luo
Dr. Anthony Kong
Prof. Dr. Rob Law
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 420 KiB  
Article
Service Robots in the Workplace: Fostering Sustainable Collaboration by Alleviating Perceived Burdensomeness
by Eeman Almokdad and Chung Hun Lee
Sustainability 2024, 16(21), 9518; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16219518 - 1 Nov 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1849
Abstract
This study investigates the impact of job demands and perceived burdensomeness on employees’ willingness to collaborate with service robots (SRs) in the workplace, with a focus on the moderating effects of organizational support, self-esteem, and self-development. Conducted among 200 employees in South Korea, [...] Read more.
This study investigates the impact of job demands and perceived burdensomeness on employees’ willingness to collaborate with service robots (SRs) in the workplace, with a focus on the moderating effects of organizational support, self-esteem, and self-development. Conducted among 200 employees in South Korea, the results show that higher job demands significantly increase perceived burdensomeness, which negatively affects employees’ willingness to collaborate with SRs. Organizational support moderates the negative impact of job demands, reducing their detrimental effects, although it was less effective in buffering the reduction in social interaction. Self-esteem and self-development positively moderated the relationship between burdensomeness and collaboration. This study contributes to the understanding of sustainable workforce management by highlighting the importance of fostering personal and organizational resources to ensure that SR integration enhances both operational efficiency and employee well-being. The findings align with broader sustainability goals by promoting human–robot collaboration that optimizes resource use, enhances workforce adaptability, and maintains social and psychological balance in the workplace. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Service Robots in Post-COVID Era)
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18 pages, 3740 KiB  
Article
A Design Study on Commercial Cleaning Robots Based on Kano–QFD
by Wei Liu, Jiaqi Chen, Yinan Fei, Ziyan Hu, Changlong Yu and Wa Gao
Sustainability 2024, 16(20), 8935; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16208935 - 15 Oct 2024
Viewed by 2107
Abstract
In the post-pandemic era, public space safety has emerged as a central public concern. As global public health awareness rose, traditional manual cleaning methods were increasingly inadequate for large-scale and high-standard cleaning requirements. Therefore, the design of a commercial cleaning robot that combined [...] Read more.
In the post-pandemic era, public space safety has emerged as a central public concern. As global public health awareness rose, traditional manual cleaning methods were increasingly inadequate for large-scale and high-standard cleaning requirements. Therefore, the design of a commercial cleaning robot that combined cleaning efficiency, environmental performance, and sustainability was essential to meet evolving societal demands. This paper systematically gathered and analyzed commercial cleaning robot functional requirements through a comprehensive investigation. According to the Kano model, functional requirements were categorized by attributes and their importance was quantified. Subsequently, using the QFD model, the design requirements for commercial cleaning robots were determined, and their significance weights were established. This identified the key design requirements. The results of this study indicated that the integration of the Kano and QFD models provided a novel perspective for the design of functional integration in commercial cleaning robots. Furthermore, it provided a practical methodological framework for addressing similar issues in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Service Robots in Post-COVID Era)
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