Self-construals as the locus of paradoxical consumer empowerment in self-service retail technology environments

While its use has expanded considerably, self-service retail technology (SSRT) continues to face mixed customer evaluations. This paper introduces an SSRT paradoxes approach, drawing on the theory of psychological empowerment that incorporates self-construals to address the various entities that SSRT users enlist to gain control over their environment. Based on consumer narratives, this study provides an extensive description of the positive and negative manifestations of SSRT-based customer empowerment, and gives credence to customer relational and collective selves as major loci of enabling or disenabling agency. Additionally, a similarity analysis of 200 data points identifies SSRT users across four communities sharing similar cognitive schemas, while revealing a paradoxical nexus between political forms of disempowerment, including dehumanization and inequitable exchange, and a sense of ubiquitous autonomy. The implications of these findings are significant for research on consumer empowerment and SSRT acceptance, as well as for retailers.