Robotic Restaurant Marketing Strategies in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Focusing on Perceived Innovativeness

Although innovative robotic technology plays an important role in the restaurant industry, there is not much research on it. Thus, this study tried to identify how to form behavioral intentions using the concept of perceived innovativeness in the context of robotic restaurants for the first time. A research model comprising 12 hypotheses is evaluated using structural equation modeling based on a sample of 418 subjects in South Korea. The data analysis results show that perceived innovativeness is an important predictor of the customers’ attitude, which in turn has a significant effect on desire. In addition, desire exerts a positive influence on intentions to use and willingness to pay more. Lastly, perceived risk moderates the relationships between (1) desire and intentions to use and (2) desire and willingness to pay more. Based on the above statistical results, important theoretical and managerial implications are presented.