José Franco earned a Ph.D degree in economics and innovation management (DEGIN) at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) on 21/12/2020, with an "excellent" grade and international doctorate mention. He is currently working for the University of Alcalá and World Bank in project research for Kazakhstan and is in the process to elaborate on social innovation paper research.

He received a master’s degree in innovation from the Universidad Nacional de Asuncion (UNA), Paraguay, in 2014. Bachelor in international trade at the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas, Mexico (2008) and in business management at the Columbia University of Paraguay (2004). With postgraduate studies in university teaching at the Catholic University of Asuncion, and agribusiness management at the UNA.

His most relevant academic experiences have been as an academic researcher in the Dpt. of Industrial Engineering, Business Administration, and Statistics, E.T.S.I. Industriales (UPM). In 2020, as visiting researcher at the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR) in Rome, Italy. He participated in the project “Analysis and development of international open innovation models and networks,” in the Centro de Apoyo a la Innovación Tecnológica (CAIT-UPM) financed by Facebook Connectivity (FBC) in 2018 and 2019 (PI: Gonzalo Leon). Also, in 2014 he has been visiting scholar in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Universidad de Valladolid (UVa), and in the same year as visiting researcher in the Coast University Centre (CUC), Universidad de Guadalajara (UdeG), Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

Among its most relevant pedagogical activities can be mentioned: in 2019 as a lecturer at the Higher School of Informatics Engineering (UPM) in the chair of Management and Quality Control; in the Faculty of Business Studies, Universidad Tecnológica Intercontinental (UTIC) he taught E-commerce and Marketing, Reengineering and Total Quality, and Administration VI: Strategic planning and business policy in 2014-2015. In the Faculty of Business Sciences and Technology, Universidad Gran Asunción (UNIGRAN), Microeconomics and International Trade in 2014, and in the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (UNA), in the chair: Policies and International Trade (2009 to 2015).

In addition, he participated in 9 international conferences and 9 professional dissertations in Europe and Latin America. Its academic services mainly were as a reviewer in the International Journal of Computational Economics and Econometrics (IJCEE) and the Academy of Management (AoM) conference "Advancing Management Research in Latin America." As discussant at the EU-SPRI Early Career Researcher Conference "The changing entrepreneurial finance landscape: challenges for policy" in Turin, Italy, and EU-SPRI Early Career Researcher Conference "How to foster innovative entrepreneurship? Trends, challenges, and policy implications" in Milan, Italy.

In the last years, he has been researching social media platforms, involving statistics, business analytics, machine learning, text mining, and sentiment analysis in social media, applied to social sciences. Also, conducted qualitative research regarding consulting companies, FinTech’s, and organizations that are implementing open innovation, and he investigated topics such as innovation, entrepreneurship, SDGs, and COVID-19.

He has been fascinated with the potential that it offers customized data access—not limited to social media—including surveys, polls, public institutions, companies, among others, to carry out research projects. His investigation includes open innovation models, knowledge innovation business services (KIBS), and data-driven innovation from tech companies.

Contact: j.franco.riquelme@upm.es