Let Ω ⊂ R N (N ≥ 1) be a smooth bounded domain, a ∈ C(Ω) a sign-changing function, and 0 ≤ q < 1. We investigate the Robin problemwhere α ∈ [−∞, ∞) and ν is the unit outward normal to ∂Ω. Due to the lack of strong maximum principle structure, this problem may have dead core solutions. However, for a large class of weights a we recover a positivity property when q is close to 1, which considerably simplifies the structure of the solution set. Such property, combined with a bifurcation analysis and a suitable change of variables, enables us to show the following exactness result for these values of q: (Pα) has exactly one nontrivial solution for α ≤ 0, exactly two nontrivial solutions for α > 0 small, and no such solution for α > 0 large. Assuming some further conditions on a, we show that these solutions lie on a subcontinuum. These results rely partially on (and extend) our previous work [17], where the cases α = −∞ (Dirichlet) and α = 0 (Neumann) have been considered. We also obtain some results for arbitrary q ∈ [0, 1). Our approach combines mainly bifurcation techniques, the sub-supersolutions method, and a priori lower and upper bounds. * 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. 35J15, 35J25, 35J61. †