Spanish manufacturing SMEs that use robots show measurably higher productivity, particularly the smaller and less innovative firms among them. But according to a new study from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), robotization alone does not translate into more export activity — that depends instead on where a company happens to be located.

Researchers analyzed nearly 5,000 manufacturing firms between 1990 and 2016, drawn from Spain’s most comprehensive industrial database via the SEPI Foundation, focusing on enterprises with 10 to 200 employees — a segment representing a substantial share of Spanish business.

Size and Innovation Change the Payoff

Company size turned out to matter a great deal. “The smaller the firm, the greater the increase in productivity when robots are introduced. However, in firms with more workers, the increase is not so significant,” explained co-author Carles Méndez. Innovation level mattered too: “Although robots have a positive impact in all cases, in more innovative companies adopting this technology does not lead to such a major change.”

On exports, the picture was different. Robotization on its own did not directly increase a firm’s international business — regional factors proved far more important. “We found a significant positive relationship between the presence of firms in the same sector or related sectors in the province…and the export capacity of SMEs,” Méndez noted, pointing to the role of regional localization economies — clusters of related businesses that help each other reach international markets.

A complementary study on broader digital transformation reinforced the point that technology adoption alone isn’t a silver bullet: “Implementing digital technologies does not automatically lead to a long-term increase in companies’ productivity.” Those tools did, however, selectively boost internationalization among companies that were already highly digitalized and active in import-export trade.

“We need well-trained personnel. Technological innovation is not enough; organizational structures need to be adapted to it.”

Professor Joan Torrent, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

The study was published in the Journal of the Knowledge Economy (DOI: 10.1007/s13132-026-03261-7).