The importance of self-service kiosks in developing consumers' retail patronage intentions

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine ways in which service quality delivered by self-service kiosks influences consumers' retail patronage intentions. Design/methodology/approach: The model was tested in two self-service kiosk settings: self-checkout and information kiosk. Survey participants were members of a consumer panel from an online survey agent. A total of 1,230 e-mails were distributed. Of these, 600 usable surveys were used for data analysis. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings: The study demonstrates that service quality delivered by self-service kiosks is a direct and an indirect determinant of consumers' retail patronage intentions; service quality delivered by self-service kiosks directly influences consumers' retail patronage intentions and also indirectly influences consumers' retail patronage intentions through three dimensions of retail service quality (i.e. reliability, personal interaction, and problem solving). Originality/value: Compared with previous studies that were heavily focused on consumer acceptance or trial of self-service technologies, the study attempts to address formerly unexplored aspects of self-service kiosks' contribution to retail patronage. A second contribution of the study which makes it different from prior studies that were mostly conducted in the context of self-checkouts is that it tests a conceptual model related to two types of self-service kiosks (i.e. self-checkout and information kiosk) to examine whether the proposed relationships are similar or dissimilar across the two types.