This study examines how service robots reshape hotel employees’ emotional labour strategies. Using data from 410 hotel employees, we find that robot–employee interactions decrease surface acting and increase deep acting, whereas employee–customer interactions promote deep acting, reflecting emotional authenticity. However, when both interactions occur simultaneously, robots weaken the positive link between customer interaction and deep acting while increasing surface acting. These findings extend emotional labour theory by revealing how automation moderates emotional expression in hybrid service settings and provide managerial guidance for balancing efficiency and authenticity in robot-assisted hospitality.
AshforthB. E., & HumphreyR. N. (1993). Emotional labor in service roles: The influence of identity. Academy of Management Review, 18(1), 88–90.
2.
AustinE. J., DoreT. C., & O’DonovanK. M. (2008). Associations of personality and emotional intelligence with display-rule perceptions and emotional labor. Personality and Individual Differences, 44(3), 679–688.
3.
AyyildizA. Y., BaykalM., & KocE. (2022). Attitudes of hotel customers towards the use of service robots in hospitality service encounters. Technology in Society, 70, 101995.
4.
BeckM., & LibertB. (2017). The rise of AI makes emotional intelligence more important. Harvard Business Review, 95(1), 1–5.
5.
BelancheD., CasalóL. V., FlaviánC., & SchepersJ. (2020a). Robots or frontline employees? Exploring customers’ attributions of responsibility and stability after service failure or success. Journal of Service Management, 31(2), 267–289.
6.
BelancheD., CasalóL. V., FlaviánC., & SchepersJ. (2020b). Service-robot implementation: A theoretical framework and research agenda. The Service Industries Journal, 40(3–4), 203–225.
7.
BhaveD. P., & GlombT. M. (2016). The role of occupational emotional-labor requirements on the surface-acting–job-satisfaction relationship. Journal of Management, 42(3), 722–741.
8.
BlöcherK., & AltR. (2020). AI and robotics in the European restaurant sector. Electronic Markets, 31(3), 529–551.
9.
BoltonR. N., McColl-KennedyJ. R., CheungL., GallanA., OrsingherC., WitellL., & ZakiM. (2018). Customer experience challenges: Bringing together digital, physical and social realms. Journal of Service Management, 29(5), 776–808.
10.
BrislinR. W. (1980). Translation and content analysis of oral and written materials. In TriandisH. C. & BerryJ. W. (Eds.), Handbook of cross-cultural psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 389)–444). Allyn & Bacon.
11.
BrotheridgeC. M., & GrandeyA. A. (2002). Emotional labor and burnout: Comparing two perspectives of “people work.”Journal of Vocational Behavior, 60(1), 17–39.
12.
BrotheridgeC. M., & LeeR. T. (2003). Development and validation of the Emotional Labor Scale. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 76(3), 365–379.
13.
CheshinA. (2020). The impact of non-normative displays of emotion in the workplace. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 6.
14.
DiefendorffJ. M., CroyleM. H., & GosserandR. H. (2005). The dimensionality and antecedents of emotional-labor strategies. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 66(2), 339–357.
15.
GabrielA. S., DanielsM. A., DiefendorffJ. M., & GregurasG. J. (2015). Emotional-labor actors: A latent-profile analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(3), 863–879.
16.
GilR., KimM., & KooI. (2017). Does job satisfaction increase sales and customer satisfaction? Evidence from retail banking in South Korea. The BE Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 17(3), 1–17.
17.
GoodhueD. L., & ThompsonR. L. (1995). Task-technology fit and individual performance. MIS Quarterly, 19(2), 213–236.
18.
GrandeyA. A. (2000). Emotion regulation in the workplace: A new way to conceptualize emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(1), 95–110.
19.
GrandeyA. A. (2003). When the show must go on: Surface and deep acting as determinants of emotional exhaustion. Academy of Management Journal, 46(1), 86–96.
20.
GrandeyA. A., & GabrielA. S. (2015). Emotional labor at a crossroads. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 2(1), 323–349.
21.
GremlerD. D., & GwinnerK. P. (2000). Customer–employee rapport in service relationships. Journal of Service Research, 3(1), 82–104.
22.
HochschildA. R. (1979). Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure. American Journal of Sociology, 85(3), 551–575.
23.
HochschildA. R. (1983). The managed heart: Commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press.
24.
HossainM. A., DwivediY. K., & NaseemS. B. (2015). Developing and validating a hierarchical model of service quality of retail banks. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 26(5–6), 534–549.
25.
HuangM. H., & RustR. T. (2018). Artificial intelligence in service. Journal of Service Research, 21(2), 155–172.
26.
HuangQ., & XieC. W. (2017). Impact of hotel employee–customer interaction on efficiency. Journal of Tourism, 32(4), 66–77.
27.
IvanovS., GretzelU., BerezinaK., SigalaM., & WebsterC. (2019). Progress on robotics in hospitality and tourism: A review of the literature. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 10(4), 489–521.
28.
IvanovS., WebsterC., & GarenkoA. (2018). Young Russian adults’ attitudes towards robots in hotels. Technology in Society, 55, 24–32.
29.
JeongJ. Y., ParkJ., & HyunH. (2019). The role of emotional service expectation. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 321.
30.
KimH., & ChoiB. (2013). The influence of customer-experience quality. Service Marketing Quarterly, 34(4), 322–338.
31.
KooI., & De CastroJ. O. (2022). When entrepreneurial and customer orientation meet meaningful work: A moderated mediation approach. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2022(1), 14182.
32.
KooI., ZamanU., HaH., & NawazS. (2025). Assessing the interplay of trust dynamics, personalization, ethical AI practices, and tourist behavior in the adoption of AI-driven smart tourism technologies. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 11(1), 100455.
33.
LarivièreB., BowenD., AndreassenT. W., KunzW., SirianniN. J., VossC., WünderlichN. V., & De KeyserA. (2017). Service encounter 2.0. Journal of Business Research, 79, 238–246.
34.
LinH., ChiO. H., & GursoyD. (2020). Antecedents of customers’ acceptance of AI robotic devices. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 29(5), 530–549.
35.
LuV., WirtzJ., KunzW. H., PaluchS., GruberT., MartinsA., & PattersonP. G. (2020). Service robots, customers and service employees. Journal of Service Theory and Practice, 30(3), 361–391.
36.
MurphyJ., HofackerC., & GretzelU. (2017). Dawning of the age of robots in hospitality and tourism. European Journal of Tourism Research, 15, 104–111.
37.
ParkS. (2020). Multifaceted trust in tourism service robots. Annals of Tourism Research, 81, 102846.
38.
PrenticeC., LopesS. D., & WangX. (2020). The impact of artificial intelligence and employee service quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 29(7), 739–756.
39.
PrewettM. S., JohnsonR. C., SaboeK. N., ElliottL. R., & CoovertM. D. (2010). Managing workload in human–robot interaction. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(5), 840–856.
40.
QiuH. L., LiM. L., ShuB. Y., & BaiB. (2021). Enhancing hospitality experience with service robots. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 29(3), 247–268.
41.
SciottoG., & PaceF. (2022). The role of surface acting in the relationship between job stressors and health. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(8), 4800.
42.
SeoK. H., & LeeJ. H. (2021). The emergence of service robots at restaurants. Sustainability, 13(8), 4431.
43.
SolnetD., SubramonyM., FordR. C., GolubovskayaM., KangH. J. A., & HancerM. (2019). Leveraging human touch in service interactions. Journal of Service Management, 30(3), 392–409.
44.
SolomonM. R., SurprenantC., CzepielJ. A., & GutmanE. G. (1985). A role theory perspective on dyadic interactions. Journal of Marketing, 49(1), 99–111.
45.
TungV. W. S., & AuN. (2018). Exploring customer experiences with robotics in hospitality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 30(7), 2680–2697.
46.
van DoornJ., MendeM., NobleS. M., HullandJ., OstromA. L., GrewalD., & PetersenJ. A. (2017). Domo arigato Mr. Roboto. Journal of Service Research, 20(1), 43–58.
47.
VenkateshV., & DavisF. D. (2000). A theoretical extension of the technology-acceptance model. Management Science, 46(2), 186–204.
48.
WangX., ZhuH., JiangD., XiaS., & XiaoC. (2023). “Facilitators” vs “substitutes”: The influence of artificial intelligence products’ image on consumer evaluation. Nankai Business Review International, 14(1), 177–193.
49.
WillemsK., VerhulstN., De GauquierL., & BrengmanM. (2023). Frontline employee expectations on working with physical robots. Journal of Service Management, 34(3), 467–492.
50.
WirtzJ., PattersonP. G., KunzW. H., GruberT., LuV. N., PaluchS., & MartinsA. (2018). Brave new world: Service robots in the frontline. Journal of Service Management, 29(5), 907–931.
