The role of attitude towards digital technology in the effect of tourists' perceptions of restaurant innovativeness on the willingness to revisit and use service robots: The case of Cappadocia

With the rapidly spreading digital transformation, technology has become an indispensable part of our lives. Covering a wide area from our homes to our workplaces, technology interacts by responding to the changing needs in our daily lives. The food and beverage industry is also affected by this evolution and needs to adapt to technological developments. This situation reflects the fact that the digital transformation process manifests itself at every stage of service in food and beverage businesses. In this context, the main purpose of the research is to understand the relationship between tourists' perception of restaurant innovativeness, their intention to visit the restaurant again and their demand for service robots. At the same time, the moderating role and level of influence of attitude towards digital technology on this relationship was evaluated. In this regard, quantitative research methods were adopted to achieve the stated objectives and the analyses were carried out with the SmartPLS program. The sample group consists of foreign tourists who dine in restaurants operating in the Cappadocia region. In order to reach the tourists in the determined sample, simple random sampling method was preferred from the probability sampling method and 424 questionnaires were collected and analyzed. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used to test the hypotheses formed in line with the objectives of the study. As a result of the study, significant relationships were found between tourists' perceptions of restaurant innovativeness and their intention to revisit and their willingness to use service robots. Positive perceptions of restaurant innovativeness increased the intention to revisit the restaurant. In this context, attitude towards digital technology showed a moderating effect in this relationship, while positive attitude towards digital technology was found to be a moderating moderator between intention to use service robot and revisit. In addition, it is concluded that the willingness to use service robots plays a mediating role between technology-based service innovativeness and revisiting the restaurant.