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#1 Intro Good afternoon, it is my honor to be here today. Today I’d like to talk about one of my researches: Customers’ intention to use robot-serviced restaurants in Korea: relationship of coolness and MCI factors. I will start with the introductions on ‘Robot in the frontline’. #2 Recently, robots replace humans in various segments of the service industry. Not only in Korea but also in many countries, they do, in many field, such as hospital, hotel, airport, shopping mall, and even museum, etc. Robots are faster and more accurate than human. They do not complain about working on holidays, demanding higher wages, and do not avoid hard work. #3 Service robots are making a remarkable progress in the hospitality industry. From cooking to delivering the food to customers, they do that by themselves. #4 Although there have been many studies on robot service, the topics were efficiency and economic feasibility derived from the robot’s functional excellence. In contrast, this study focused on cognitive aspects and internal motivations of customers who use the service robots in restaurants. #5 When customers encounter (come across) a service robot at a hotel or restaurant for the very first time, customers respond with "Wow" or "Cool." And, this is a typical reaction of appreciation for innovative services or products. According to previous studies, coolness motivates consumers’ innovativeness. With this, this study focused on analysing the relationship between ‘coolness’ and ‘motivated consumer innovativeness’ (MCI). #6 This is theoretical background When customers have access to new technology. They feel Motivated consumer innovativeness. MCI has three classifications; they are functionally motivated consumer innovativeness (fMCI), hedonically motivated consumer innovativeness (hMCI) and socially motivated consumer innovativeness (sMCI). #7 Speaking of Coolness, Coolness has four key components, which are utility, attractiveness, subcultural appeal, and originality. #8 hypotheses Therefore, the research hypotheses 1 to 4 propose that Coolness factors has a positive or negative effect on MCI. #9 And the MCIs effect on customers’ attitude based on previous studies. So these hypotheses are presented. #10 Based on previous researches, positive attitude towards robotic services affects the intention to use robots. On this ground, the hypothesis 8 was proposed. #11 Moving on, when customers use an innovated product/service, they may feel value from that product/service. That value could be the perceived enjoyment, trust, or risk. This study also analyses whether a consumer’s perceived value of robotic services directly affects his/her intention to use such services. Herein the hypotheses presented, as you can see here. #12 To broaden the analysis, the moderating effect was analysed by dividing the customers into two different age groups. And, relevant literature has helped proposing this research hypothesis. #13 With this, the conceptual framework of the research was proposed. 1st phase, Coolness, 2nd phase, MCI, 3rd phase is planned behaviour. #14 method Next, as for the research method, pre-test was done with 30 customers who had visited restaurants served by robots. 420 revised questionnaires were distributed, and out of those, 415 were used for an empirical analysis. #15 Here, we can see the results of a confirmatory factor analysis, wherein both the Composite Reliability (CR) and Average Variance Extracted (AVE) values are above 0.8 and 0.6, with appropriate the factor loading values for all items. So, the convergent validity was verified. #16 To verify the discriminant validity among each factor, the square root of the AVE was used. As the table shows, the diagonal value was larger than non-diagonal correlation value in the related row and column which is larger than 0.5. And, a decent discriminant validity was verified. #17 In this table, the results of the structural equation modelling show that while hMCI has a strong influence on consumer attitudes, it is only influenced by Attractiveness. It is also confirmed the perceived values of enjoyment and trust affect the intention to use service robots, but perceived risk does not. #18 And, here we can see the figure 2, the result of SEM for the research. #19 Going further, as a result of the moderating effect, when hMCI affect attitude, older age group is more responsive than the young age group. #20 conclusion Now here is conclusion. The research shows that restaurant service robots are not very attractive to customers but important. Then, should the service robot be very attractive like human? There is an interesting theory related to this issue. If robot is very attractive like human, that causes very uncomfortable feelings in human perception of robot, and that is called “Uncanny Valley” proved by Mori in 1970. So, service robots don’t have to perfectly resemble humans in detail. But anyway they attract customers in other ways. #21 When it comes to human appearance robot, there are two different kinds of findings of previous researches, one is robots with human appearance positively effect on customers in Asian counties. The other one is negatively effect on customers especially in restaurant business. #22 Now, practical implications. First, functional excellence of robot is not enough to satisfy the customers anymore. Service robots need to persuade customers with sensual elements. #23 Second, the interaction between service robot and customers is very important, like appearance, sound, melody, and light, that will stimulate customers' hedonic motivation. Adding such as light jokes or praising menu choices may also drive emotional interactions among robots and customers. #24 Third, according to the result of the research, restaurant owners and robot developers should consider the cognitive factors to attract customers. #25 Fourth, food and beverage stores will open their doors to these robots soon. So, the government should consider reorganizing the regulations and systems about service robot to maintain the competitive edge in the service industry in Korea.