Collaborating with service robots: enhancing work engagement and job outcomes

As service robots increasingly influence the roles of frontline service employees, understanding the psychological mechanisms underlying their work outcomes is essential. Grounded in conservation of resources theory and regulatory focus theories, this study investigates how frontline service employees’ perceived service robot support enhances in-role (job performance) and extra-role (customer helping behavior) behaviors, with work engagement as a mediator and regulatory focus as a moderator. A two-wave survey of 200 frontline service employees across diverse service sectors indicates that service robot support is positively and indirectly associated with both behaviors through increased work engagement. This effect is stronger for promotion-focused employees and weaker for prevention-focused employees. These findings advance understanding of how service robot support shapes job outcomes, clarify the underlying mechanism, and identify regulatory focus as a key boundary condition, offering insights for leveraging service robots to enhance customer service.