Francesco Rentocchini

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About

Francesco Rentocchini is a leading scholar at the intersection of innovation economics, industrial dynamics, and technology management. His research primarily investigates how firms adopt and benefit from advanced technologies, with a particular focus on robotics, digitalization, and knowledge networks. In his highly cited 2024 work, “Robot adoption and product innovation,” Rentocchini challenges conventional wisdom by revealing a negative relationship between robot adoption and product innovation among Spanish firms. Using a staggered difference-in-differences approach and instrumental variables, he shows that automation may crowd out internal innovation efforts rather than enable new product development—a counterintuitive finding with major policy implications. With over 35 recent citations, this study has quickly become a reference point for debates on Industry 4.0 and firm-level technological change. Beyond this, Rentocchini’s broader portfolio explores how collaborative R&D, university-industry links, and regional ecosystems shape innovation outcomes. His work is widely cited by economists, management scholars, and policymakers, and he is recognized for bridging rigorous causal methods with real-world industrial challenges. For students and researchers, Rentocchini offers a critical, evidence-based perspective on the promises and pitfalls of automation.