Kim Willems
Papers
11
Total Citations
296
H-Index
9
About
Kim Willems is a pioneering researcher at the intersection of retail innovation and service robotics, whose work has fundamentally shaped our understanding of how autonomous technologies are transforming the modern shopping experience. Based at the forefront of retail technology research, Willems has built a distinguished body of scholarship focused on humanoid service robots, frontline employee dynamics, and the evolving retail servicescape. Willems' most influential contribution — an observational study comparing humanoid robots with tablet kiosks at the point of sale (87 citations) — demonstrated how physical robot design influences customer conversion behavior, providing retailers with actionable evidence for technology deployment decisions. Complementing this, her field-based placement studies and media richness research reveal the nuanced conditions under which robots deliver measurable value, moving the field beyond theoretical speculation into rigorous empirical territory. Particularly distinctive is Willems' attention to the human side of automation. Her mixed-methods research on frontline employee expectations (44 citations) addresses a critically underexplored dimension — how workers themselves anticipate and experience robot collaboration — lending her work both practical and ethical depth. Her COVID-19 acceleration paper further demonstrated her responsiveness to emerging retail disruptions. With over 290 cumulative citations across ten years of sustained output, Willems has established herself as an essential voice for scholars and practitioners navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of robot-assisted retail.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 2Frontline employee expectations on working with physical robots in retailing44 citations · 2022
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- 7Humanoid Robot Pepper at a Belgian Chocolate Shop16 citations · 2018
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- 9Robots and AI in retailing and consumer services11 citations · 2022
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