ICON UNIZG FOI · HRZZ

Research group

Complementary competencies across four disciplines

Five core members (two assistant professors, two senior assistants and one PhD student) work alongside three senior researchers who provide mentorship, international reach and methodological depth.

Principal Investigator

Tamara Šmaguc

Assistant Professor · PhD 2019 (EFZG)
University of Zagreb Faculty of Organization and Informatics

0000-0002-9987-8299

Email the PI

Core team

Tamara Šmaguc researches at the intersection of entrepreneurship and digital technology, with experience in both qualitative methods and quantitative survey studies.

She has co-authored a wider body of WoS CC- and Scopus-indexed papers, including Q1 articles with Springer and Taylor & Francis, as well as a published scientific monograph. In 2025, she received the UNIZG FOI award for exceptional teaching achievements.

Šmaguc is co-head of the Laboratory for Information and Computational Research in Economics (EconCS Lab) at UNIZG FOI and has collaborated on seven scientific and professional projects funded by the Croatian Science Foundation, Erasmus+, ERDF and ESF. These include a lead role in the entrepreneurship work packages of the HRZZ project AGENT (UIP-2025-02-7375) and the realisation of the qualitative research work packages on the HRZZ project DigEntre (IP-2022-10-6703).

Her wider engagement includes academic editorship at PLOS ONE, extensive peer reviewing, conference participation and student mentoring.

Project publications

Core team

The research group

The intention is to consolidate complementary competencies and profile the team in a thematic area that holds promise for more extensive future research programmes.

Ivana Dvorski Lacković

Risk management · Entrepreneurship

Assistant Professor, UNIZG FOI
PhD 2021 (EFZG)

Ivana is a co-author of numerous WoS CC and Scopus papers, including Q2 articles with Springer, and of a monograph published by Naklada Slap and EFZG, with a further monograph under her co-editorship. She has worked on several projects, including the HRZZ projects DigEntre and HELA, with experience spanning survey studies and qualitative designs. She was also awarded Best Young Scientist at UNIZG FOI in 2022.

0000-0003-4068-6273

Krešimir Jakšić

Cognitive psychology

Senior Teaching Assistant
University of Zadar, Department of Psychology
PhD 2025 (FFZG)

Krešimir is a co-author of numerous WoS CC and Scopus papers, including several Q1 articles with Elsevier, Springer and Wiley. He began his career on the HRZZ project DOK-2020-01-1052 and has since participated in several others, gaining expertise in cognitive psychology and specialising in quantitative methodology as well as psychological task methods.

0000-0003-2056-3604

Petar Škvorc

Algorithms · Programming

Senior Teaching Assistant, UNIZG FOI
PhD 2024 (FSBZG)

Petar is a senior assistant on programming courses at UNIZG FOI. He started his career as a PhD student on HRZZ DOK-2018-09-1200 and is currently a team member on HRZZ IP-2022-10-9434. He is a co-author of numerous WoS CC and Scopus papers, including several Q1 and Q2 articles with Elsevier and Techno Press.

0000-0002-7263-3849

Ivona Kocijan

Entrepreneurship · PhD student

Teaching Assistant, UNIZG FOI
Doctoral candidate since 2025

Ivona is a PhD student researching at the intersection of entrepreneurship and digital technology. She is also a member of the HRZZ DigEntre team. Her doctoral research covers topics close to the project area, making ICON a direct contribution to her specialisation. She is a co-author of several conference papers.

0009-0000-0370-3818

Senior researchers

Mentorship and international reach

Three established scholars participate in the research beyond the core team. Their involvement is intended to strengthen the capacity of early-career researchers, support the long-term sustainability of the project’s results, and pave the way for the development of an international consortium.

Vlatka Škokić

Entrepreneurship

Full Professor
University of Split, Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism
PhD 2010 (University of Strathclyde)

Vlatka is an accomplished entrepreneurship scholar with particular expertise in qualitative methods. She obtained her PhD at the University of Strathclyde and worked as a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Surrey, UK.

0000-0003-2562-2706

Robert Kudelić

Algorithms · Information science

Associate Professor, UNIZG FOI
PhD 2015 (UNIZG FOI)

Robert is a professor in the field of information science with numerous Q1 publications and the author of a scientific monograph published by Springer. He is the Principal Investigator of the HRZZ project AGENT (UIP-2025-02-7375).

0009-0003-1881-642X

Bjørn Willy Åmo

Entrepreneurship

Professor
Nord University Business School, Norway
PhD 2005 (Bodø Graduate School of Business)

Prof. Åmo acts as a senior adviser on the Norwegian research context. A visit to the team is planned in the first year, providing training and consultation, advice on translation and language equivalence, and guidance on ensuring cultural neutrality in decision-making tasks.

0000-0003-3127-1607

Competencies

How the expertise combines

The team’s knowledge and skills are interdisciplinary and complementary, covering every methodological demand the design places on it.

Entrepreneurship
Šmaguc · Dvorski Lacković · Kocijan  +  Škokić · Åmo
Cognitive psychology
Jakšić
Risk
Dvorski Lacković
Information science
Škvorc  +  Kudelić
Qualitative research
Šmaguc · Dvorski Lacković · Kocijan  +  Škokić
Survey design & quantitative analysis
Jakšić · Šmaguc
Cognitive task design
Jakšić
AI expertise & advanced programming
Škvorc  +  Kudelić

Host institution

Institutional support

The University of Zagreb Faculty of Organization and Informatics expresses full commitment to supporting the project.

The research team will be equipped with standard computing and office resources, including workstations, printing and scanning devices, and other necessary tools. The team benefits from institutional infrastructure: wireless connectivity, facilities for virtual collaboration and videoconferencing, cloud-based services, specialised laboratories, and library resources with interlibrary loan services. FOI also provides administrative and financial professional services through its accounting office and Centre for International Projects.

Next

Four work packages across 36 months

Work plan

ICON is fully supported by the Croatian Science Foundation under grant UIP-2026-4349, awarded through its Installation Research Projects (UIP) scheme. The Foundation is the central national body funding scientific, higher-education and technological research in Croatia.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in project materials are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Croatian Science Foundation.