Abstract:

Social assistive technologies have been significantly applied into aged care to actively engage older adults with their community and help them perform independently. This study aims at identification of factors that enable social assistive technologies to: (1) be accepted by older people; (2) perform as a companion robot; and (3) design innovative services in care providing organizations. This study considers social assistive technologies as service innovators in aged care context to co-create value for and with aged care service consumers. A quantitative approach is applied to explore and assess the factors, using structural equation modelling (238 surveys collected from aged care practitioners in Australia). The findings show the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and robot service co-creation significantly influence social robot capabilities. The findings also present a significant relationship between social robot capabilities and the independence of older adults.