This commentary advances that the next wave of service robot research should move toward a service-systems perspective on physical AI. Recent advances in generative and agentic AI are transforming robots from stand-alone service interfaces into embodied and networked actors that must be orchestrated with other physical AI deployments, virtual AI, employees, customers, digital platforms, and the physical infrastructure they operate in. I propose that future research should focus less narrowly on whether customers accept robots and more on where, how, and under what conditions physical AI creates value for customers, employees, firms, and society. Key research opportunities include studying robot-enabled service systems, backstage value creation, differences between special-purpose and general-purpose robots, orchestration as a core organizational capability, scalable innovation through no-code programming and fleet learning, and corporate digital responsibility (CDR), safety, and cybersecurity challenges of embodied AI. By reframing service robots as part of broader service systems, marketing and service research can develop richer theories of cost-effective service excellence (CESE), responsible deployment, and the human touch where it matters most.
Sensory mapping, the process by which a sensory stimulus elicits a consumer response, is central to effective sensory marketing. Yet, research on the topic remains fragmented. First, the prevalence of construct proliferation, where a lack of distinction between a continuously growing array of similar terms, raises questions about how different types of sensory mappings should be defined. Second, sensory mappings have often been studied in isolation, even though they are interrelated in practice, where one stimulus can diverge into multiple responses and multiple stimuli can converge on a single response. Third, sensory stimuli are prone to mixed outcomes, enhancing or harming consumer evaluations. This paper addresses these challenges in two steps. First, a typology delineating sensory mappings based on sensory stimuli (physical vs. lexical) and consumer responses (sensory vs. semantic) is developed, yielding four key variants: sensory correspondence, semantic correspondence, sensory communication, and semantic communication. Second, a conceptual model is provided with propositions explaining how these sensory mapping types can be combined and how stimuli intensity and individual differences act as boundary conditions that explain mixed outcomes. Together, these frameworks underpin a future research agenda that offers directions to advance sensory marketing theory and practice.
This conceptual work investigates the emerging role of consumers as investors in various physical and digital assets. We introduce the notion of consumers’ asset monetization, defined as consumers’ orientation to monetize their asset(s) in secondary markets and benefit financially from them in the short or long term. Our work articulates the theoretical underpinnings of consumers’ asset monetization as a market phenomenon and highlights its idiosyncrasies relative to three interrelated but distinct literature streams (i.e., product reselling, consumer collecting, and resource monetization). We then set out a research agenda that proposes various psychological frameworks to understand consumers’ asset monetization journey and discusses its consequences for firms, creators, and consumers. Last, we highlight five areas of research interest for researchers and practitioners to better understand how consumers adopt an investor mindset (i.e., conceptualization, antecedents, individual-level consequences, firm responses, and ethical/financial implications arising from consumers’ asset monetization).
