Published an opinion piece in HospitalityNet: “Your robots may be working, your staff may not”.
Hi, I’m Matteo 👋
I research how AI is reshaping services, and help people build what comes next.
Associate Professor in Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Henley Business School, University of Reading. I study how AI and service robots change customer experience and work, teach entrepreneurship through pitches, boot camps and real industry challenges, and lead the Digitalisation, Marketing & Entrepreneurship research division.
AI in Marking Award
International e-Assessment Awards, 2026
Henley Award for Research
2024 and 2025
Henley Award for Teaching
Innovative pedagogies, 2024
Editorial Board
Tourism Management and Journal of Travel Research
Three things I care about
I use big data from millions of online reviews to understand how AI and service robots change customer experience, frontline work and the way services are designed.
20 peer-reviewed articles on AI, service robots and online reviews
Keynotes in Thailand, Malaysia, India and the UK
Henley Award for Research, two years running (2024 and 2025)
Entrepreneurship is learned by doing. My students pitch to industry “Dragons”, join start-up boot camps and use AI as a tool, not a shortcut.
AI in Marking Award 2026: hybrid human–AI marking for 550+ students, with Dr Andrew Hull
Dragons’ Den competition with industry judges and Savills, highlighted in Henley’s EQUIS re-accreditation
International start-up boot camps in Malaysia, funded by Research England
Research is better together. I lead a 23-strong research division and invest in the things that make academic life work: writing labs, away days, mentoring and responsible research assessment.
Research Division Lead, Digitalisation, Marketing & Entrepreneurship
Principal Investigator, British Academy International Writing Workshop grant, supporting early-career researchers in Thailand
Founder of “Back to the Future”, a PhD–staff community day running since 2019
Editorial Board, Tourism Management and Journal of Travel Research · BAM Peer Review College
The research, mapped
Each dot is a paper; filled dots are papers I led. The thread in each theme runs from my newest paper at the centre out to my earliest. Hover to preview, select to read more.
2024 · Service robots & AI
Asymmetrical influences of service robots’ perceived performance on overall customer satisfaction: an empirical investigation leveraging online reviews
01 · Service robots & AI
- 2026Hybrid service agency: human–robot collaboration and workforce transformation in hospitality and tourism
- 2024Artificial intelligence in service industries: customers’ assessment of service production and resilient service operations
- 2024Asymmetrical influences of service robots’ perceived performance on overall customer satisfaction: an empirical investigation leveraging online reviews
- 2023The impact of service robots on customer satisfaction online ratings: the moderating effects of rapport and contextual review factors
- 2022The role of emotions in the consumer meaning-making of interactions with social robots
- 2021Customers’ evaluation of mechanical artificial intelligence in hospitality services: a study using online reviews analytics
- 2021Service robots in online reviews: online robotic discourse
- 2019Industry 4.0: a bibliometric review of its managerial intellectual structure and potential evolution in the service industries
02 · Online reviews
- 2025Deceptive minds in digital spaces: the influence of the dark triad on posting fake online reviews
- 2023Do submission devices influence online review ratings differently across different types of platforms? A big data analysis
- 2023Exploring environmental concerns on digital platforms through big data: the effect of online consumers’ environmental discourse on online review ratings
- 2021Are environmental-related online reviews more helpful? A big data analytics approach
- 2021Environmental discourse in hotel online reviews: a big data analysis
- 2020Online review helpfulness and firms’ financial performance: an empirical study in a service industry
- 2020Unravelling the effects of cultural differences in the online appraisal of hospitality and tourism services
- 2019Online reviews: differences by submission device
- 2019The role of language in the online evaluation of hospitality service encounters: an empirical study
- 2018Effects of the Booking.com rating system: bringing hotel class into the picture
Now
What I’m focused on this season. Updated every month or so.
Researching
How self-efficacy and resilience grow, phase by phase, when aspiring founders go through immersive start-up training.
Building
Taking our award-winning AI-supported marking beyond its 550-student pilot, and growing the Tech-TO.BE COST network on technology in the built environment.
Teaching
Real Estate Entrepreneurship & Technology, and Digital Entrepreneurship in Practice.
Speaking
Just back from the Academy of Management in Philadelphia, presenting work on immersive entrepreneurship training.
Latest
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Our AI-supported marking and feedback project, with Dr Andrew Hull, won the AI in Marking Award at the 2026 International e-Assessment Awards.
Keynote at ICMS 2026, Walailak University, Thailand, on AI-driven sustainability in tourism and services.
Got an idea? Let’s build it together.
Research collaborations, PhD and DBA supervision, keynotes and panels, or industry conversations on AI and PropTech.