Unveiling the Flavorful Brew: Analyzing the Asymmetric Effects of Smart Coffee Vending Machines

This research has a twofold purpose within the domain of smart coffee vending machines. First, it seeks to validate the fundamental service dimensions and attributes associated with these machines. Second, it investigates how service attributes symmetrically and asymmetrically influence customers’ overall satisfaction when adopting smart coffee vending machines, by utilizing impact–range performance analysis (IRPA) and impact asymmetry analysis (IAA) as analytical tools. The findings reveal that smart coffee vending machines possess multiple attributes that exert both symmetric and asymmetric effects on customer satisfaction on coffee consumption. The application of IRPA and IAA enables scholars and practitioners to categorize these attributes into five distinct groups: frustrator, dissatisfier, hybrid, satisfier, and delighter. In addition, the study suggests that out of seven underlying factors, coffee quality and interactive experiences have the two largest number of attributes that could potentially lead to high dissatisfaction in coffee-vending machine consumption. Academic and practical implications of these results are thoroughly discussed.