Automation vs Authenticity in Services

Abstract

This paper seeks to answer the question of ‘whether automation and/or authenticity should be a priority in service industries’. Furthermore, it develops a framework explaining the decision process of authentic vs automated services for the service industries. The framework includes three stages (evaluating critical factors, determining the pros and cons of each service design, and final decision of service type). It starts with assessing critical factors such as service industry type, service provider type, consumers’ profiles, expectations, and desires, the task type (the suitability of tasks with automation/authenticity), types of provided products or services, types of available automation technologies, and the resources of service providers (e.g., financial, physical, human). In the final stage of the proposed framework, service providers can be ready to decide the service type (fully automated, a certain degree of automation/authenticity, fully authentic) that best fit them. Since no study in this context is found in the extant literature, this paper will contribute to the literature in terms of playing a guidance role for service industry practitioners and can be a reference that opens a scholarly debate on the subject.