Francesca is professor of Marketing at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She holds a doctoral degree in marketing from the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University.

Francesca’s research focuses on retailing, in particular on the impact of changes in the retailing landscape on brand manufacturers’ and retailers' performance. Her research investigates the consequences of channel changes (e.g., price wars, cross-chain effects, price promotions, front-of-package labels, planogram decisions) and media changes (eWOM, social media, location-based advertising, mobile push notifications). Her work has been presented at numerous conferences and published in journals such as Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Product and Brand Management, International Review of Retail, Distribution & Consumer Research, Micro & Macro Marketing and Revue Française du Marketing. She serves as Area Editor for Journal of Retailing and is on the editorial board of Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and Journal of Interactive Marketing.

Her research was selected as finalist for the prestigious Weitz-Winer-O’Dell Award (2021), as well as for the AMS Sheth Foundation Best Paper Award (2021), and won the Best Paper in Track Award Winter AMA (2020), the Best Paper AMA Marketing and Public Policy Conference (2019), ABRI Best Faculty Paper Award (2016) and the William Davidson Honorable Mention (2017). Her work has been featured as "high impact" and "recommended for managers to read" by the Marketing Science Institute.