Where are you?: A qualitative investigation of self-service technology in the hotel industry

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Where are you?

A qualitative investigation of self-service technology in the hotel industry

Sara Fredriksson, Anna Schmidt

Department of Business Administration Master's Program in Marketing

Master's Thesis in Business Administration II, 15 Credits, Spring 2019

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, we would like to thank the participating hotel guests for offering their time and enthusiasm, in order to contribute to the findings of this thesis. Moreover,

we want to express our gratitude to the investigated hotel that allowed us to base our thesis upon their service encounter. Additionally, we want to highlight our appreciation

to the hotel representative’s dedication of providing us with the necessary means to conduct this thesis.

We also extend our regards to our supervisor Jan Bodin, who encouraged us to reflect upon our thesis progress, in order to stay on the right track and strive for more. Finally, we would also like to thank each other for an excellent teamwork. This thesis would not

have been possible to conduct without our dedication and positive attitude to see this thesis through, which constantly kept our motivation going.

Umeå, Sweden May 28, 2019

Sara Fredriksson Anna Schmidt

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ABSTRACT

Throughout the last years, the service encounter has gone through drastic changes due to rapid technological developments. The research area of service marketing is therefore putting a stronger focus on the academic field of technology-infused service encounters.

Marketers have moreover also started to implement self-service technology (SST) within their service encounters, in order enhance their service delivery. This phenomenon has also been visible within the hospitality industry, whereby the hotel industry has experienced an increasing adoption of SST encounters. Consequently, hotels’

implementation of SST kiosks has enhanced the hotel guests’ participation level within the service encounter. Therefore, this thesis aims to gather insights on the emerging SST customer roles, by investigating the guests’ attitude towards the SST encounter. This leads to the investigation of distinctive SST customer roles within hotels’ self-check-ins.

The choice of the research topic was driven by the fact that existing research about SST implementation in the service encounter, lacks an investigation of the customers’

perspective. Thereby, a research gap was identified that outlays the customers’ enhanced participation as service co-producers. Previous research has focused on investigating customers’ technology acceptance, rather than their own identification as co-producers.

Thereof, this thesis will put an emphasis on hotel guests’ attitude towards SST, as a specific aspect of the technology acceptance process. Moreover, this thesis will focus its investigation on self-check-ins within hotels that do not incorporate a human interaction point for their guests. Consequently, in order to investigate the SST customer roles more thoroughly, this thesis will also consider the viewpoint of the hotel. Therefore, qualitative interviews among nineteen hotel guests and one hotel representative were conducted.

The findings of this thesis revealed that SST customer roles cannot be predetermined within a hotel self-check-in. Instead, the hotel guests define their own SST customer roles through a reflection upon their purpose of the hotel stay, expectations of the check-in encounter, arising special needs and perceived benefits of the self-check-in. This determines their individual ‘role file card’, which can be utilized into the proposed SST customer roles archetypes of: technology enthusiast, beneficiary, traditionalist and contradictor. In regard to that, it has been identified that the information provided prior to the hotel guests’ stay, influences the reflection upon their SST customer roles.

Moreover, it was discovered that with their increased responsibility over the check-in process, the hotel guests identified themselves as co-producers. Therefore, the findings outlined that the guests would want the price of the hotel stay to reflect their increased involvement in the service delivery.

From a theoretical perspective this thesis bridged the identified research gap of investigating hotel guests’ attitude towards SST, in order to classify the different customer roles that arise within a hotel’s self-check-in. Moreover, the findings revealed practical implications for hotel managers in regards of the need to provide their guests with more information about the SST encounter. Thereby, hotel managers will be enabled to increase their guests’ satisfaction with the SST encounter, as the guests’ expectations would be coherent with the hotel’s offerings.

Keywords: self-check-in; SST in the hotel industry; SST customer roles; attitude towards SST; value creation in SST encounters; SST co-production

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 1.CONCEPTUAL MODEL. ... 21

FIGURE 2.REVISED CONCEPTUAL MODEL. ... 58

FIGURE 3.THESIS AUTHORS’ PROPOSED SST CUSTOMER ROLE ARCHETYPES. ... 60

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1.LITERATURE SEARCH WORDS. ... 10

TABLE 2.PRESENTATION OF THE RESPONDENTS. ... 31

TABLE 3.SUMMARIZATION OF EMPIRICAL FINDINGS. ... 49

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1 Introduction

This chapter provides the reader with the necessary knowledge about the research topic, embedded in an explanation of the problem background and identified research gap.

Thereafter, the research question of this thesis is presented, which intends to fulfil the moreover outlined research purpose of this thesis. Afterwards, the delimitations of this thesis are pointed out to the reader.

1.1 Problem background

The service encounter can be seen as an organization’s moment of truth, as it encompasses the situation where the organization and its customers meet, interact and create the service (Bitner et al., 2000, p. 139; Grönroos, 2015, p. 96). Moreover, the service encounter acts as the organization’s key component of how to show, convey offerings into sales and satisfy its customers (Bitner et al., 2000, p. 139). From a customer perspective, the service encounter is thereof viewed as the service itself (Bitner et al., 2000, p. 140).

Nevertheless, with the society’s continuing technological evolvement and acceptance of its usability, it has become a natural action of organizations to introduce technological solutions into the service encounter (Larivière et al., 2017, p. 238). Consequently, customers are faced with the possibility to interact with technology, in order to support and facilitate the service process instead of relying on the organization’s employees (Bitner et al., 2000, p. 141; Curran et al., 2003, p. 209; Larivière et al., 2017, p. 242;

Meuter et al., 2000, p. 50). So, technological advancements are strongly influencing the foundation of how service organizations interact and serve their customers (Keyers et al, 2018, p. 158; Zainuddin et al., 2016, p. 587).

Those recent technological developments are also influencing the hotel industry, as the use of technological systems allows hotel managers to increase revenues, decrease costs and enhance guests’ experiences (Stamenov, 2018). More and more hotels therefore start to implement kiosks that replace the traditional front-desk (Stamenov, 2018). Those kiosks enable guests to conduct the check-in on their own and make them independent of a front-line employee (Stamenov, 2018). The technological interfaces that enable customers to produce a service without involvement or assistance of the organization’s employees are entitled self-service technologies (SST) (Meuter et al., 2000, p. 50). Other applied usage settings where SST facilitate services are ATMs, self-service kiosks in airports and supermarkets as well as within hotels (Beatson et al., 2007, p. 75; De Keyers et al., 2019, p. 162).

So, by implementing a SST encounter the organization utilizes technology as a substitute for their employees; leaving the customer responsible for the service creation (De Keyers et al., 2019, p. 161; Larivière et al., 2017, p. 239; Marinova et al., 2017, p. 32). Therefore, it is the interaction between the technology and customer that generates the service and its outcome (De Keyers et al., 2019, p. 161; Larivière et al., 2017, p. 239; Marinova et al., 2017, p. 32). As proposed by De Keyers et al. (2019, p. 161), this type of SST encounter can be defined as a ‘customer-technology substituted frontline employee encounter’ (De

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Keyers et al., 2019, p. 161). Within the context of hotels this implies that the hotel’s check-in process is solely conducted by the customer through the use of the SST kiosk.

According to the European Commission (2017), the majority of the European inhabitants has a positive attitude towards technology. It was found that 75% of the 27.901 surveyed EU citizens believed that digital technologies have a positive impact on the economy (European Commission, 2017). Followed by 67% of the citizens, who perceived technology to have a positive influence on their life quality (European Commission, 2017). This leads them to potentially have a more positive willingness to accept and interact with new technological advancements.

In the hospitality context, the hotel industry is one of the industries that has had the highest deployment of technology-driven service encounters (Dzia-Uddin et al., 2018, p. 25).

This consequently implies that customers have a higher level of participation in the service creation, as they now act as co-producers of the service process through the SST encounter (Hilton & Hughes, 2013, p. 863; Hilton et al., 2013, p. 4; Vargo & Lusch, 2008, p. 8). This leaves customers with more responsibility and ownership over the service process than before (Hilton & Hughes, 2013, p. 864). However, customers need to be willing to take on their responsibility, in order for the service creation via the SST encounter to be accomplished (Anitsal & Schumann, 2007, p. 359; Curran & Meuter, 2005, p. 104). Thereby, the customers’ willingness is shaped by their positive attitude towards technology and the perceived benefits of engaging with the SST encounter (Fernandes & Pedroso, 2016, p. 73). Consequently, the SST encounter puts customers into a new and more active position within the service creation.

1.2 Research gap

In relation to the implementation of an SST kiosk within the service encounter, different researchers have analyzed customers’ acceptance behavior towards using this new technology. Curran et al. (2003) analyzed what could motivate customers to use SST and thereby engage less with service employees. Dabholkar et al. (2003) further investigated, which reasons guide customers in adapting self-scanning checkouts in the retail industry.

Moreover, authors like Meuter et al. (2000) identified aspects of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction, arising with the implementation of SST. Previous research has also been conducted in terms of determinants causing consumers to choose SST over face-to- face contact in the service encounter (Simon & Usunier, 2007); and moreover, the benefits of SST for customers and firms in the travel and tourism industry have been outlined (Stockdale, 2007). Furthermore, Oghazi et al. (2012) proposed a model in relation to customers’ technology acceptance of SST, which they tested within the specific context of library checkouts.

So, as can be seen from the given outlines of previously conducted research, in relation to SST, researchers have mainly focused on customers’ acceptance of these technological systems in the service encounter. Thereby, different industries have been studied in relation to how customers and employees choose and accept SST in comparison to face- to-face service encounters. However, none of the presented studies has focused on particular aspects of the acceptance process, neither looked at the consequences that they might have for the customers’ characteristics in their interaction with SST. Thereby, especially the aspect of attitude towards SST and its components like technological

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readiness (Liu et al., 2012, p. 1827), could generate additional knowledge about SST users’ characteristics (Åkesson & Edvardsson, 2018). In line with that, Fernandes and Pedroso (2017, p. 70) state that an analysis of the success of SST from the customers’

side is lacking.

As previously outlined, there has been a transition in the service encounter that caused a technology infusion of many tasks conducted throughout the service creation. However, researchers like Gelderman et al. (2011, p. 415) claim that in most cases customers still have a choice between SST and a human-driven service encounter. In relation to that, previous research states that “[…] there will always be some need for face-to-face interactions” (Åkesson and Edvardsson, 2018, p. 206). Nevertheless, for example hotels start to use check-in procedures that are solely based on SST with no initial possibility to interact with employees (Hoydysh, 2019). Moreover, previous research mostly focused on customers’ adoption or intention to use SST (Fernandes & Pedroso, 2017, p. 70).

However, in solely SST-driven service encounters customers do not have a choice over the type of service interaction that could influence their intention to use the SST kiosk.

Therefore, the claim of Åkesson and Edvardsson (2018) requires some clarification for the setting of solely SST-driven service encounters.

Fernandes and Pedroso (2017, p. 87) further state that an investigation of customer differences could enable practitioners to develop strategies that are in line with the users’

demographics and attitude towards SST. Thereby, especially the factor of ‘enjoyment’

throughout the SST encounter requires a more thorough investigation, in relation to different implications on usability and usefulness of the technological system (Fernandes

& Pedroso, 2017, p. 88). As Parasuraman (2000, p. 311) claims individuals can have a negative or positive attitude towards technology. Moreover, Oh et al. (2016, p. 238) emphasizes that customers technology trust or anxiety influences their perception of the SST encounter. This points out the necessity to identify what defines enjoyment over an SST encounter for customers. Research that further investigates into this direction, could provide a deeper understanding about practical implications, in relation to SST users’

attitudes, as a part of their acceptance process of new technological systems (Oh et al., 2016, p. 240).

As has also been outlined within the problem background, the technology infusion of the service encounter has shifted the customers’ participation in the service creation; so that they have become co-producers. This indicates that they co-produce the value of the service encounter (Hilton et al., 2013, p. 3; Vargo & Lusch, 2008, p. 8). Moreover, a need to further investigate solely SST-driven service encounters has been identified, which could enhance the customers’ importance within the co-production. Moeller et al. (2013, p. 474) also claim that if customers have wrong expectations of their role within the service creation, this might function as a barrier of their role taking ability. Consequently, this outlines the research potential of investigating whether customers within solely SST- driven service creations identify themselves as co-producers of the service, or not.

As outlined beforehand, the authors of this thesis focus on the identified research gap within solely SST-driven service encounters that take place during hotel check-ins.

Previously conducted research has shown that this type of service encounter has led to a co-production of the service through the customers (Chathoth, 2007, p. 405). However,

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the authors of this thesis claim that the customers’ role has not only changed in terms of becoming co-producers. The thesis authors therefore want to investigate, in which way customer roles need to be redefined within the context of solely SST-driven service encounters.

In relation to that, studies conducted by Åkesson and Edvardsson (2018) and Kelly et al.

(2017) identified different SST customer roles within the retail and airport check-in contexts. Even though they were able to characterize different SST customer roles, Åkesson and Edvardsson (2018, p. 206) raised the claim, to engage into more in-depth studies on those SST customer roles in the future. In the same manner, Kelly et al. (2017, p. 235) emphasize that longer in-depth interviews could enhance the description of SST customer roles. Therefore, this thesis will tackle this research gap and outlined claim for further investigation. Firstly, the authors will place the study within the context of hotel check-in processes that are solely operated through SST by hotel guests. Thereby, the authors intend to bridge the stated gap of Åkesson and Edvardsson (2018, p. 206), which is to place the study of SST customer roles into a more precise type of situation. Moreover, gathering a better understanding of the “architecture of customer roles” (Åkesson &

Edvardsson, 2018, p. 206), should be a focus of future research, as outlined by the researchers.

Consequently, a research gap can be identified when it comes to the study of customer roles within SST settings in the hotel industry that take into consideration the aspects of service creation as well as guests’ attitude towards SST. Thereby, the characteristics of SST customer roles are the focal point of the identified research gap.

1.3 Research question

Based on the conducted problem background and identified research gap, the authors of this thesis have derived to the following research question:

What characterizes customer roles within the self-service technology encounter?

1.4 Research purpose

The main purpose of this thesis is to classify different customer roles that arise within the SST encounter; particularly self-check-ins in hotels. In order to derive a theoretical contribution to the outlined research gap, the authors will investigate hotel guests’ varying attitudes towards using SST and their perceived participation in the service creation.

Hence, the explanation of different customer attitudes towards SST will be used in the inference of distinctive SST customer roles. By combining existing research and the findings of this thesis, the authors further aim to provide additional knowledge to hotel managers on their guests’ role in the self-check-in encounter.

1.5 Delimitations

In accordance with fulfilling the research question, this thesis is placed within the context of the hotel industry. However, a specified limitation is made by investigating within a Swedish hotel that primarily bases its check-in encounter on SST.

Thereby, the first limitation of this thesis is the focus on the hotel check-in process as a specific type of SST encounter. The selected SST encounter is solely conducted by the

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hotel guests and can therefore be defined as a self-check-in encounter. However, by only focusing on the check-in process, the thesis authors will not investigate the hotel guests’

holistic perception of the self-check-in/out process. Moreover, the fact of investigating the self-check-in encounter within only one hotel, might also have consequences for this study in terms of the gathered variety of data. Furthermore, the regional limitation of Sweden could effect this thesis’ context of investigation. Nevertheless, the authors believe that this focus on one single hotel that possesses a self-check-in process will provide the necessary findings, in order to fulfil this thesis’ research purpose.

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2 Scientific Methodology

The primary aim of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the preconceptions of this thesis and its philosophical standpoints. Additionally, a presentation of the applied research approach and research strategy will be given. Towards the end of this chapter, the conducted literature search is outlined along with the authors’ choice of theories.

2.1 Preconceptions

As an integral part of this thesis, the authors want to point out their awareness of important preconceptions. As Bjereld et al. (2002, p. 14) outline, it is necessary for researchers to present preconceptions about the subject of research interest. Moreover, the presentation of preconceptions will aid the authors in differentiating their role in terms of own perceptions and empirical findings (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p. 414).

Thereby, according to Johansson-Lindfors (1993, p. 76) one can differentiate between secondary and primary preconceptions. In that sense, primary preconceptions are concerned with the knowledge that the researchers have gathered through prior studies (Johansson-Lindfors, 1993, p. 76). Within this thesis, this mainly covers the authors’ prior studies as master’s students majoring in marketing. Both authors have taken courses in service marketing prior to the thesis. Moreover, more specific courses like ‘Behavioral perspectives on E-business’ and ‘Current Trends’ had an input on the preference of the chosen research area. Therefore, it can be concluded that the authors have gathered distinctive knowledge within the field of service marketing, which guided and influenced their choice of the thesis topic.

Secondary preconceptions, on the other hand, are grounded in the authors’ knowledge gained through personal interest in the research topic, which might also affect the outcome of the study (Johansson-Lindfors, 1993, p. 76). The authors therefore think that it is important to point out that they have chosen this thesis’ topic out of personal interest and willingness to contribute theoretical and practical implications. The authors believe that technology-infusion of service encounters is a topic of current interest and importance. It can provide valuable insights for future service interactions. Furthermore, both authors experienced interactions with SST encounters and therefore have a natural understanding of the processes and its potential benefits and pitfalls. One of the author also worked at a hotel reception in Gothenburg, which led to the further interest of investigating SST encounters in the hotel industry.

As a conclusion, the authors want to point out their awareness of the preconceptions and their influence on the thesis. Thereby, the prior knowledge within service marketing might influence the selection of applicable literature. Further, the conduction of the interviews and data analysis might be influenced by the authors’ experiences with hotel guests and SST encounters. Moreover, in order to ensure that there will not be any risk of applying concepts that are unclear to the reader (Ragins, 2012, p. 496), the thesis authors put an emphasis on clearly outlining all concepts within the theoretical framework. So, by providing transparency about the preconceptions of this thesis, the authors show an awareness of the preconceptions’ influence on the thesis (Bjereld et al., 2002, p. 14).

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2.2 Philosophical standpoint

The philosophical standpoint or paradigm guides the conduction of scientific research and outlines the researchers’ assumptions about reality and the nature of knowledge (Collis

& Hussey, 2014, p. 10). Thereby, the philosophical standpoint can be divided into ontology and epistemology (Collis & Hussey, 2014, p. 10). As Johnston (2014, p. 206) outlines, the ontological and epistemological choices within a study influence the undertaken research approach. This implies that the chosen philosophical standpoints build the foundation of the applied methodology, incorporating the understanding of the basis of knowledge and reality (Johnston, 2014, p. 206). Therefore, the thesis authors are going to present their philosophical standpoints in the following section, in order to provide a paradigm for this thesis.

Firstly, the ontological standpoint describes the authors’ understanding of the nature of reality (Collis & Hussey, 2014, p. 47; Guba, 1990, p. 18). This shapes the authors’ view on their research object (Saunders et al., 2016, p. 127), which in the context of this thesis are the hotel guests engaging with the self-check-in. This implies that every hotel guest is an individual social actor. Therefore, all social actors have a personal perception of the social world, shaped by their interaction with the SST kiosk. In this case, social reality is subjective, as every individual has his/her own sense of reality, which is in line with an interpretivist paradigm (Collis & Hussey, 2014, p. 47). In relation to the specific ontological standpoint, this implies a subjectivism approach.

Subjectivism assumes that social reality is shaped through its social actors and can therefore not be predetermined (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 23; Saunders et al., 2016, p.

130). This implies that individuals need to adapt their understandings to the specific situation of investigation (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 23). Within this thesis, the subjectivist standpoint is reflected within the specific context of hotels’ self-check-ins, which will be investigated in relation to SST customer roles. Thereby, the SST customer roles need to be defined through context-defined characteristics of the guests, which will be constructed through the individual’s interaction with the SST kiosk. As the hotel guests differ within their interaction with the SST kiosk, so does the social reality around them depending on the specific context.

The epistemological standpoint, on the other hand, is concerned with the relationship of the researcher and the state of knowledge (Guba, 1990, p. 18; Saunders et al., 2016, p.

127). Thereby, the researchers’ acceptance of what is valid knowledge is defined and outlines the relationship between the researchers and the research object (Collis &

Hussey, 2014, p. 47). In line with the interpretivist paradigm, this implies a reflection of human distinctiveness and an understanding of human behavior (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 17-18). This reflects the purpose of this thesis of getting a deeper understanding of SST customer roles based on the customers’ attitude towards SST encounters. Thereby, the distinctive customer roles will be driven by the customers’ individual attitude towards SST encounters.

As this thesis aims to gather a rich understanding and interpretation of this particular context, an interpretivist standpoint is applied (Saunders et al., 2016, p. 140). Saunders et al. (2016, p. 140) thereby claim that humans need to be differentiated from the physical

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phenomenon, since they create the meanings within the situation. In this thesis, this is applicable through the hotel guests’ individual attitude and perception of the self-check- in, which will guide their own perspective and consequently the authors’ understanding of human knowledge. Therefore, the authors’ investigation will be based on the hotel guests’ perspective.

2.3 Research approach and research design

When considering the choice of a research approach, it is important to identify the extent to which the authors are clear about the theory at the beginning of the study (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 124). Within this thesis the authors have identified a variety of existing literature, which is outlined within Chapter 3. This review of existing literature thereby led to a conceptual model, which reflects the purpose of this thesis and its later study. The outlined approach taken by the authors of this thesis reflects deduction, since the investigation is built on a theory-basis guiding the study (Saunders et al., 2009, p. 124).

This implies that the conducted study is theory-driven, whereby the authors adopt a clear theoretical standpoint that will be further investigated (Saunders et al., 2016, p. 51).

Moreover, the thesis starts with theoretical outlines and aims for the falsification or verification of this theory (Saunders et al., 2016, p. 145). As stated beforehand, within this thesis the main investigation is based on existing theory on attitude towards SST and SST customer roles. Thereby, the authors developed a conceptual model that is driven by those theories and visualizes existing relations, which will be examined through the empirical findings. This conceptual model provides a general description of the current state of research, which will be verified with the context-specific data gathered within the thesis. This support the claim of Collis and Hussey (2014, p. 7) as well as Graneheim et al. (2017, p. 31) that deductive research moves from a general to a more concrete level of theory through the collection of specific data. So, existing knowledge is taken, in order to generate new knowledge on its basis (Collis & Hussey, 2014, p. 7).

Consequently, the deductive research approach of this thesis aims to investigate SST customer roles by taking a more thorough look at how the customers’ attitude towards SST encounters defines their customer roles. This implies that the thesis investigates the influence or relationship between attitude towards SST and SST customer roles. In relation to the research design, this reflects Saunders et al.’s (2016, p. 176) definition of an explanatory study. Thereby, an explanatory research design is defined by a focus on studying a particular situation, in order to explain the relationships between the applied variables (Saunders et al., 2016, p. 176). Within this thesis the different variables would be the SST customer roles and the main aspects of attitude towards SST. Saunders et al.

(2016, p. 393) further highlight that explanatory research can be both inductive and deductive and is often done through semi-structured interviews. This will be further addressed in the selected data collection technique (Chapter 4) within this thesis.

2.4 Research strategy

In order to fulfil the thesis’ explanatory purpose and answering the research question, the authors have decided to follow a qualitative research strategy. This type of research strategy outlines the participating respondents’ point of view and is based on a contextual understanding of the research findings (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 418). In comparison to a quantitative research strategy, it therefore focuses on gathering rich data that will

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support the deeper investigation of the chosen research area (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p.

426). This is in line with this thesis’ purpose of investigating SST customer roles on the basis of the customers’ individual attitude towards SST encounters.

In line with the interpretivist paradigm of this thesis, a qualitative study further supports the investigation of a context that is constructed through the individuals’ interpretation of their social world (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 28). So, as the social reality is constantly shifting, based on the individuals’ meaning creations (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 28), it becomes necessary to collect qualitative data that provides a contextual understanding of the phenomenon. Bryman and Bell (2007, p. 29) further highlight that qualitative research does not necessarily need to be inductive, but can also be applied within a deductive study, in order to test existing knowledge (Bryman & Bell, 2007, p. 29). Therefore, this thesis will engage in an in-depth investigation about the characteristics of SST customer roles within the specific context of self-check-ins. Thereby, the purpose it to gather a deeper understanding of how customers’ attitudes towards SST influence their roles.

Consequently, the authors strive towards collecting data that reflects the “subjective features of individuals” (Gawlik, 2016, p. 4), in order to analyze the unique characteristics of the customers’ roles within SST encounters.

In regard to the qualitative research strategy, the authors further decided to conduct a cross-sectional study. This is outlined as a typical form of qualitative research, which takes place at a particular point in time (Bryman & Bell, 2015, p. 77; Saunders et al., 2016, p. 200). In this thesis, the study was also conducted within a short period of time and therefore not focused on the ongoing developments of the phenomenon (Bryman &

Bell, 2015, p. 61; Saunders et al., 2016, p. 200). Bryman and Bell (2015, p. 61) further identify the researchers’ interest in variation as a key element of cross-sectional studies, which requires the investigation of different cases. In regards to that, the purpose of this thesis is to get a deeper understanding of SST customer roles. This implies that different hotel guests, their experiences and perceptions of the SST encounter as well as individual attitudes are analyzed within this thesis. This will support the fulfillment of the research question by applying a qualitative strategy of gathering empirical findings.

2.5 Literature search

As outlined by Collis and Hussey (2014, p. 77), within a research project it is necessary to construct a theoretical framework that reflects the current state of existing knowledge in relation to the research purpose. In order to achieve a sufficient breadth and depth of the investigated research topic, the search of appropriate literature is an important step prior to developing the theoretical framework (Baker, 2016, p. 266). Thereby, it is important to apply certain criteria within the literature search (Baker, 2016, p. 266). One of these criteria was used within this thesis regarding the date of publication. The thesis authors tried to focus on literature that was published within the last seven years, but further included older literature, in order to build a fundamental understanding of the research area. This is in line with Baker (2016, p. 266), who claims that it is important to stay up to date, but still include older studies within the literature review.

An additional criterion for the literature search is the identification of search words. Since the selected words will direct the literature search, it is important to carefully identify them in relation to the research purpose (Winchester & Salji, 2016, p. 309). Collis and

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Hussey (2014, p. 78) further outline that the literature search will be more general in the beginning and unveil more specific search words. In line with that, the authors of this thesis firstly identified broad search words, as applicable in Table 1. These guided the first search of literature, in order to better define the theoretical background and context of this thesis. Moreover, this broad search was utilized to identify specific search words that fitted the research purpose. The specified search words are also presented within Table 1 and reflect the chosen research area of SST encounters, attitudes towards SST and the thereby arising SST customer roles.

Table 1. Literature search words.

Broad search words Specified search words

- Service marketing

- Self-service technology (SST) - SST encounter

- Technology acceptance of SST

- Technology acceptance model (TAM) - SST in the hospitality industry

- Customer roles; SST customer roles - Attitudes towards SST

- Value creation in SST encounters - SST co-production

Consequently, in order to allow for a comprehensive and unbiased literature review, the authors used several literature search words, which is line with Bryman and Bell (2007, p. 101). These search words were applied within different electronic databases, in order to find significant research articles. Thereby, the authors focused their search on the online database of Umeå University’s library and Google Scholar. Google Scholar is a specialized search engine that searches literature by using a variety of sources like books, articles and thesis within different disciplines (Saunders et al., 2016, p. 100). Through the library’s database the authors got access to a variety of peer-reviewed journal articles.

This was also achieved through Google Scholar, which moreover allowed the authors to see how many other researchers had previously referred to the journal article within their studies.

As Winchester and Salji (2016, p. 309) state, it is important to read peer-reviewed articles within the literature search, in order to formulate a good literature review. Furthermore, authors need to aim for a balance between long-established articles and current ones (Winchester & Salji, 2016, p. 309). This relates back to the authors’ applied approach of searching for current articles, while also considering older ones for the fundament of the theoretical framework. Therefore, the theoretical framework of this thesis is mainly based on refereed academic journals, which have been peer-reviewed before their publication to ensure their quality (Saunders et al., 2016, p. 86). The authors tried to avoid outdated research and books as fundamental resources. The focus of the literature search and building of the theoretical framework was put on scientific articles, which provide empirical evidence of their proposed theories. A more precise outlook on the final choice of theories for the theoretical framework will be provided within the following section.

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2.6 Choice of theories

The previous sub-chapter outlined the conducted literature search of this thesis and the intended approach to keep a balance of current and long-established research articles.

This literature search led to the development of a theoretical framework, but prior to that the authors had to decide upon the most applicable theories in relation to the research purpose and question. The chosen approach reflects the definition of a literature review as an objective presentation of the current knowledge on a specific topic (Baker, 2016, p.

265). Thereby, in order to support the understanding of the reader, the identified research should be presented in a clear way (Baker, 2016, p. 265). Consequently, in order to perform a critical literature review it is necessary to include key theories of the chosen research area, while also showing that the research within this field is up to date (Saunders et al., 2016, p. 76). The authors of this thesis, therefore selected the most appropriate theories in relation to the research purpose of investigating SST customer roles and the influence that attitude towards SST has on the role characteristics.

In order to elaborate on SST customer roles, the authors firstly needed to provide an overview of theories that outline the customers’ attitude towards SST. In combination with a presentation of main theories on SST encounters, those two theoretical streams provided a first groundwork for gathering a deeper understanding of SST customer roles.

Moreover, in order to get a clearer presentation of the aspect of attitude and especially the factors that influence it, the technology acceptance model (TAM) was further included in the theoretical framework. TAM was firstly proposed by Davis (1985) and primarily targeted towards employees’ acceptance of new technology (Oghazi et al., 2012, p. 198).

However, throughout the years, many researchers have adopted the model, which established TAM as a “useful theoretical model for understanding and explaining usage behavior in various information system implementation settings” (Oghazi et al., 2012, p.

198).

Within this thesis TAM is viewed as an integral part for enhancing the understanding of SST customer roles. This means that TAM is supposed to function as an investigation tool in outlining the acceptance of SST from the customers’ side, in order to get a clearer picture of how this influences the development of different customer roles. Thereby, the presented articles on TAM are mostly focused on the acceptance of SST, which fits to the specific context of this thesis. However, in relation to the research purpose, the theoretical framework focuses on the aspect of attitude, which leaves out the element of intention from the presentation of TAM. Moreover, it is important to mention that in general, attitude influences the actual intention to use a new technological system (Curran et al., 2003, p. 213). Nevertheless, this thesis will not put a focus on ‘intention to use’, since the investigation is set in a hotel that only offers self-check-in and therefore requires guests to interact with the technology. Therefore, their intention to use the SST encounter does not matter, since they do not have a different option when wanting to check-in.

However, the authors want to point out a downside of TAM, which is that it lacks the existence of one commonly accepted and applicable model (Oh et al., 2016, p. 240). Even though there is the original TAM (Davis, 1985), this model only provides a basic outline of the technology acceptance phenomenon. Moreover, the multitude of studies done in relation to TAM shows how the model can be adapted within different contexts. Meaning that depending on the setting of the research, additional variables need to be added.

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Therefore, the outlined theories of TAM within this thesis mainly focus on the acceptance of SST and especially SST in the hospitality industry. Thereby, the authors wanted to highlight the theories that are in line with the context-specific purpose and research question of this qualitative study.

Furthermore, in order to understand the context-specific characteristics of SST customer roles, the authors identified the necessity to provide a short outline of role theories, but to mainly focus on current theories on SST customer roles. As outlined within the problem background, the service encounter is currently shaped by drastic changes through the implementation of technological solutions; whereby customers need to actively create the service outcome themselves. Therefore, the theoretical framework also addresses the aspect of value creation and co-production within SST encounters. This further leads to the outlines on customer roles. Long-established role theories have compared a role performance to a theatrical play, in which the different actors follow script of instructions that determines their role behavior (Biddle & Thomas, 1966, p. 4). However, as this thesis outlines a very specific type of customer roles, the authors made the decision to focus on theories presenting SST customer roles, by applying aspects of customer attitude.

In relation to SST customer roles, the authors identified two current articles that propose different role categorizations within the context of airline check-ins (Kelly et al., 2017) and the retail industry (Åkesson & Edvardsson, 2018). The two articles define the sorting criteria for their proposed customer roles differently. Therefore, the SST customer role definitions of Kelly et al. (2017) and Åkesson and Edvardsson (2018) will be utilized to provide insights that are in line with the research question and purpose of this thesis.

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3 Theoretical Framework

The following chapter outlines an overview about the theories, which set the groundwork for this thesis. Thereby, the theoretical framework will firstly present findings about the SST encounter. Afterwards, main aspects of SST value creation and co-production are defined. Moreover, the concepts of customer attitude towards SST and TAM are outlined.

Thereafter, the main concept of customer roles and SST customer roles is introduced.

Finally, the reviewed theories and concepts will be summarized within a conceptual model.

3.1 Self-service technology encounter

Self-service technology (SST) is defined as technological interfaces that enable customers’ to execute the service creation process without any employee involvement (Curran & Meuter 2005, p. 104; Dabholkar, 1996, p. 45; Keyers et al., 2018, p. 161;

Larivière et al., 2017, p. 239; Marinova et al., 2017, p. 32). In order to conduct the service creation, the organization implements specific technological terminals in the form of ATMs or check-in kiosks, named SST kiosks (Blut et al., 2016, p. 403). An organization’s reason to implement SST kiosks can be to resolve repetitive questions and tasks or to provide the customer with more responsibility over the service transaction (Meuter et al., 2000, p. 52). According to Meuter et al. (2000, p. 52) customers’ enhanced ownership of the service transaction can be found within the hotel industry. Thereby, they (Meuter et al., 2000, p. 52) exemplify that the customers conduct their own registration as well as allocation and payment of their room via a SST kiosk.

For an organization the use of SST kiosks can yield into further beneficial outcomes. The most highlighted benefits are: reduced labor costs (Chang & Yang, 2008, p. 980; Collier

& Kimes, 2013, p. 39; Dabholkar, 1994, p. 29), enhanced market differentiation and improved productivity (Curran et al. 2003, p. 210). Followed by organizational actions to reach new customer segments (Bitner et al. 2002, p. 97) and reposition employees to other activities, which require value-creating services (Lee & Allaway, 2002, p. 553-554).

Furthermore, by implementing SST kiosks it allows an organization to replace their employees with technology, which generates more static and consistent services (Curran et al., 2003, p. 211). This resolves into reduced interpersonal contact between the employees and their customers, which can lead to unsuccessful service recoveries and reduced customer loyalty (Curran & Meuter, 2005, p. 104; Selnes & Hansen, 2001, p.

87). However, in order to limit unsuccessful service outcomes Åkesson and Edvardsson (2018, p. 206) highlight the importance of face-to-face interactions in the service encounter.

From the customer’s perspective, the gained independence and ownership over the service process leads to a reduction of waiting time and increased self-control (Anitsal &

Schumann, 2007, p. 350; Meuter et al., 2000, p. 52). However, in order for the service process to be conducted, the customer must willingly participate with a higher level of involvement (Curran & Meuter, 2005, p. 104). According to Fernandes and Pedroso (2016, p. 73), a customer’s willingness to participate in a SST encounter is influenced by his/her perceived benefits of the service outcome. The attributes that determine if a

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customer wants to interact with the SST kiosk or not are: level of effort, complexity, enjoyment, accuracy and time (Dabholkar, 1996, p. 33). Thereby, Dabholkar (1996, p.

33) emphasized that some customers may have a predetermined idea of those attributes while others might not. The customers that have limited experience of the SST kiosk therefore use their own perception of the attributes to evaluate the service process (Dabholkar, 1996, p. 33). Moreover, if the customer is unaware of the perceived benefits s/he will try to avoid using the encounter (Liljander et al., 2006, p. 187). According to Elliot et al. (2012, p. 315), customers that are forced to use SST have a higher probability of spreading negative word-of-mouth about the organization, which can lead to a loss of customers. It is thereof crucial for organizations to be aware of how their customers evaluate the SST encounter and the replacement of an employee (Lee & Allaway, 2002, p. 554). The following sub-chapter will further elaborate on the SST encounter’s value creation and customer participation.

3.2 SST value creation

In general, value is “always uniquely and phenomenologically determined by the beneficiary [here: customer]” (Vargo & Lusch, 2008, p. 7). Thereof, the value process is viewed as an individual perception (Hilton & Hughes, 2013, p. 863). Traditionally, the service process has been a united collaboration between the service provider and customer with value as the generated outcome of the interaction (Hilton & Hughes, 2007, p. 862).

Accordingly, Hilton et al. (2013, p. 3) as well as Hilton and Hughes (2013, p. 863) express that value is generated from a proposition into a perception by the customer when integrating with the organizationally provided resources. In other words, the value process occurs when the service provider offers a proposition that the customer selects to use or experience, in order to retrieve value (Hilton & Hughes, 2013, p. 863; Hilton et al., 2013, p. 3). Thereof, the customer is always viewed as an active party in co-creating value of a service (Vargo & Lusch, 2008, p. 2).

However, depending on the level of customer involvement in the service process, the customer’s role of a co-creator can become the one of a co-producer instead (Hilton et al., 2013, p. 3; Vargo & Lusch, 2008, p. 8). Vargo and Lusch (2008, p. 8) express that the higher the involvement level of the customer is in the service creation process, the more of a co-producer the customer becomes. Moreover, the customer’s involvement as a co- producer is always optional (Vargo & Lusch, 2008, p. 8), which is related to their willingness to participate (Curran & Meuter, 2005, p. 104). In contrast, Hilton and Hughes (2013, p. 863) argue that a customer is continuously seen as a co-producer throughout his/her value-generating actions. This is visible in the context of SST encounters, where value can only be generated through the customer’s participation, namely the co- production (Hilton & Hughes, 2013, p. 863). Thereof, due to the transition of service tasks from the organization’s employees to the customer, the customer’s role as a co-producer increases (Hilton & Hughes, 2013, p. 863). This implies that customer is now responsible for creating his/her own value (Hilton & Hughes, 2013, p. 863).

In the context of SST encounters, the SST kiosk acts as the operand resource that requires an operant resource to generate the service (Hilton & Hughes, 2013, p. 864; Hilton et al., 2013, p. 4). Thereby, operand resources are the tangibles that service employees or customers need to interact with, in order for the service to be created (Vargo & Lusch,

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2004, p. 2). Accordingly, Hilton and Hughes (2013, p. 864) define the SST kiosk as the operand resource that requires human interaction. Operant resources, on the other hand, encompass the means such as labor, skills and knowledge that interact with the operand resource to create the service (Vargo & Lusch, 2004, p. 3). Based on organization’s implementation of SST kiosks, this leads to the operant resources in the SST encounter are the customers instead of the employees (Hilton & Hughes, 2013, p. 864).

Consequently, the interacting parties in the SST encounter are the SST kiosk and the customer (Hilton et al., 2013, p. 4). Moreover, the customer needs to interact with the SST kiosk, which leaves him/her with more responsibility and ownership of the service process than before (Hilton et al., 2013, p. 4). Hilton et al. (2013, p. 4) express that the customer’s increased responsibility may be favorable for generating more value with less labor costs, but can also cause a loss of organizational control over the service outcome.

An organization’s implementation of a SST encounter can yield a competitive advantage generated through the customer (Hilton & Hughes, 2013, p. 864). Through the customer’s enhanced responsibility over the service process, s/he can directly assess his/her own needs and desires (Vargo & Lusch, 2004, p. 12). Thereof, it is essential that the customer feels comfortable as a co-producer along with the SST encounter provides desirable service outcomes (Hilton et al., 2013, p. 7). A customer’s co-producer performance is influenced by his/her level of experience, willingness or ease to adopt technology (Bitner et al., 2002, p. 103; Meuter et al., 2003, p. 59-60; Salomann et al. 2006, p. 82). Moreover, his/her technological skills (Hilton et al., 2013, p. 8) and perception of enjoyment associated with the SST encounter (Dabholkar, 1996, p. 33; Marinova et al., 2017, p. 31) determine his/her role as a co-producer. So, as this thesis aims to categorize SST customer roles in hotels’ self-check-in encounters, Hilton and Hughes’ (2013) view of customers as co-producers will be followed. The so far outlined theories of the customer’s role in the service encounter have focused on their enhanced involvement as co-producers.

Therefore, the following sub-chapter is going into more detail about the customer’s attitude towards SST.

3.3 Customer attitude towards SST

Essentially, attitude can be defined as a positive or negative feeling that is developed by a person when engaged in a specific situation (Liu et al., 2012, p. 1827). Davis (1985, p.

39) states that an attitude is formed rapidly as a response to some sort of stimuli. Within the interaction with SST, those stimuli would be the system features that will result in motivational and behavioral responses (Davis, 1985, p. 10). Moreover, Oghazi et al.

(2012) claim the necessity for considering self-service attributes of the system, in order to get a more context-bind understanding of customer attitudes in using SST. This points out the importance of taking the specific system attributes and benefits of hotel self- check-in encounters into consideration.

The attitude towards SST is affected by several, intervening factors like technological readiness, efficiency in terms of time, money and convenience, as well as self-control (Liu et al., 2012, p. 1827). In relation to this, the term attitude can also be defined as “a tendency, a state of preparation, or a state of readiness, which lies behind action” (Blumer, 1969, p. 93). More precisely, technological readiness is classified by Parasuraman (2000, p. 311) into four different dimensions; namely optimism, innovativeness, discomfort and insecurity. Thereby, optimism and innovativeness are ‘drivers’ of technological

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readiness, whereas discomfort and insecurity are ‘inhibitors’ (Parasuraman, 2000, p. 311).

This is due to the fact that the ‘drivers’ are characterized by a positive view on technology (Parasuraman, 2000, p. 311). A lack of felt control and distrust into technology, on the other hand, fuel the ‘inhibitors’ of technological readiness (Parasuraman, 2000, p. 311).

The term technological readiness can thereby be seen as a mediator that is further defined by role clarity, motivation and ability of a user (Meuter et al., 2005, p. 62). Thereby, especially motivation and ability have been highlighted in the analysis of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment (Davis, 1985; Liu et al., 2012;

Oghazi et al., 2012). In relation to motivation and ability, it is shown that customers will in most cases only use the SST kiosk if they see a clear advantage in using it and feel comfortable in handling it (Meuter et al., 2003, p. 899). So, if a user perceives the offered system as useful, that person “develops a positive attitude toward using it” (Liu et al., 2012, p. 1826). However, Meuter et al. (2005, p. 63) further add the aspect of role clarity.

They justify this with the increasing service co-production that customers engage in through SST encounters (Meuter et al., 2005, p. 63). This is in line with the previous outlines of the changed service encounter and its co-production from the customer’s side.

Liu et al. (2012, p. 1824) further point out that users’ attitude might be influenced by their ability and confidence in using technology. So, as a component of technological readiness, ability defines a user’s capability of using the SST kiosk (Gelderman et al., 2011, p. 414). Thereby, ability in relation to technology is very much defined by the perceived ease of use of the SST (Davis, 1985; Oghazi et al., 2012). Moreover, it connects to the claim of Oh et al. (2016) of including attitudinal determinants in terms of technology anxiety and trust into the analysis; as they may provide a deeper understanding of a person’s individual perception of how ‘easy’ a SST kiosk is to use. Meuter et al.

(2003, p. 904) moreover outline that technology anxiety might even be a more reliable predictor of a user’s attitude towards SST than demographic factors like age or gender.

This finding thereof indicates that technological readiness might not necessarily be based on a specific age, but on the individual perception of the interaction with technology. So, the easier the use of a system is perceived in terms of necessary knowledge and skills, the more likely it becomes that users develop a positive attitude towards adopting it, due to increasing efficiency (Liu et al., 2012, p. 1826).

However, it is important to note that there is a difference between knowledge and skills, which further relates to the aspects of ability and role clarity. Knowledge is based on the understanding of one’s role (Liu et al., 2012, p. 1825). Skills, on the other hand, are defined by a person’s ability to use a technological system (Liu et al., 2012, p. 1825).

However, as Liu et al. (2012, p. 1825) claim, knowledge and skills influence the attitude towards technology in general. This is also reflected in the previously outlined factor of technology readiness, being defined by motivation, ability and role clarity (Meuter et al., 2005, p. 63). However, Liu et al. (2012, p. 1824) point out that compared to self-ability, self-motivation can be more effective within the customers’ decision whether or not to adopt a new technological system. This is supported by the fact that customers want to see a clear benefit in using a SST kiosk (Meuter et al., 2005, p. 78). So, in that sense Lin et al. (2007, p. 652) state that usefulness has a stronger impact than how easy users perceive the technological system.

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An additional theoretical finding is provided by Curran et al. (2003, p. 212) who include both, interpersonal attitudes and attitudes targeted towards technology within their research model. As a result, the authors presented a holistic view on the interplay of attitudes towards using a SST kiosk within hotels (Curran et al., 2003, p. 220). Thereby, Curran et al. (2003, p. 220) do not only focus on attitude towards technology, but introduce a global perspective that includes the organization and its employees.

Furthermore, the authors (Curran et al., 2003, p. 221) differentiate between attitude towards SST and attitude towards technology in general. However, the important aspect to consider within this thesis is that it will investigate within a hotel that bases its check- in process on SST.

Nevertheless, the proposed perspective of Curran et al. (2003, p. 211) allows to differentiate between infrequent and regular users of SST kiosks. Thereby, regular users are more experienced and therefore more focused on the attitude towards SST; whereas infrequent users, due to their lacking experience with SST, are often building an attitude towards technology in general or the service provider (Curran et al., 2003, p. 221). In the context of this thesis, the thesis authors think this points out that due to different abilities, motivation and role clarity, SST users might differ in their attitude towards SST in hotel check-in encounters.

Within the beforehand outlined aspects of attitude towards SST, the terms perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness have already been touched upon. Thereby, the interplay of attitude and its influential factors (perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use) has previously been studied in relation to TAM (Davis, 1985; Oghazi et al., 2012). The following sub-chapter will therefore provide a more detailed outline of TAM and its incorporated importance of attitude towards SST.

3.4 Technology acceptance model

TAM has been widely applied within studies to investigate the customers’ choice of interacting with SST (Oh et al., 2016, p. 237). Moreover, the theoretical model has been commonly used to describe customers’ individual acceptance process of new technological systems (Liu et al., 2012, p. 1826). Consequently, TAM aims for increasing the “understanding of user acceptance processes” (Davis, 1985, p. 7). The theoretical model is thereby trying to unveil the motivational processes between the features of a technological system and the behavioral response of its user (Davis, 1985, p. 10).

As indicated previously, Davis (1985) defines perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use as integral parts of user motivation within TAM. In general, perceived ease of use is

“the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would be free of effort” (Davis, 1989, p. 320). This indicates the user’s evaluation of how easy it would be to learn the necessary skills for using the SST kiosk (Oghazi et al., 2012, p. 203). On the other hand, perceived usefulness is “the degree to which a person believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her job performance” (Davis, 1989, p. 320). This implies that the SST kiosk should improve the performed service in terms of efficiency and self-control (Oghazi et al., 2012, p. 203). Based on TAM, perceived ease of use has a direct relationship with perceived usefulness (Davis, 1985). More precisely, this connection indicates that the easier customers find a technological system, the higher they will rate its perceived usefulness to be (Davis et al., 1992).

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However, Oghazi et al. (2012, p. 202), who focused their study of technology acceptance on SST, additionally consider perceived enjoyment within their conceptual model. They define perceived enjoyment in terms of whether the SST user perceives a feeling of joy throughout the interaction with the SST kiosk (Oghazi et al., 2012, p. 203). Moreover, the authors claim that perceived enjoyment is positively influenced by perceived ease of use (Oghazi et al., 2012, p. 206). This indicates that the easier a user perceives the SST kiosk to be, the higher his/her own motivation to engage with it and enjoy the interaction (Oghazi et al., 2012, p. 203).

Oghazi et al. (2012, p. 197) define some of the most influential self-service attributes as time-savings, control, ease of use and enjoyment. Thereby, it is pointed out that technology acceptance of SST is mainly based on specific attributes rather than the service experience itself (Oghazi et al., 2012, p. 197). So, the authors pinpoint the importance of identifying factors guiding the customers’ attitude towards SST by investigating the impact of perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment (Oghazi et al., 2012, p. 206).

Oh et al. (2016) also used TAM and included situational (waiting line and service complexity) and attitudinal determinants (technology trust and technology anxiety), in order to investigate customers’ willingness to adopt SST. They applied their proposed model within the hospitality context, more precisely, a check-in transaction (Oh et al., 2016, p. 238). Thereby, service complexity is for example of importance, since a complicated service request might not be servable by only using SST (Oh et al., 2016, p.

241). In relation to situational determinants of SST encounters, Simon and Usunier (2007, p. 166) further highlight the importance of waiting time. However, technology trust and anxiety are more connected to the utility of the SST or the user’s own ability of controlling the technological system (Oh et al., 2016, p. 242). Both attitudinal determinants have therefore already been outlined within this thesis as drivers of motivation and ability in terms of technological readiness. In relation to that Oh et al. (2016, p. 238) also state that attitudinal determinants characterize the user’s individual level of knowledge, perception and belief in regards to the SST encounter.

In summary, it has been shown that attitudes differ among customers, due to their dependence on motivation, role clarity and ability (Meuter et al., 2005, p. 62). Moreover, the theoretical outlines draw a connection between the customers’ attitude and different aspects of TAM towards SST. Thereby, especially the gathered understanding of SST users’ attitude towards technology in terms of technological readiness will support the later investigation of SST customer roles.

3.5 SST customer roles

In the context of service encounters, the participants have to play their individual roles (Solomon et al., 1985, p. 101). So, the service encounter itself can be defined as a role performance (Giebelhausen et al., 2014, p. 114), where the roles of the participating individuals function as resources (Akaka & Chandler, 2011, p. 247). Thereby, customers usually possess a “repertoire of roles” (Solomon et al., 1985, p. 102). This moreover incorporates that within routine service encounters, customers can apply their commonly understood and familiar role script (Giebelhausen et al., 2014, p. 115).