HRZZ research project Purpose-Driven Business: Harmonizing Personal and Organizational Purpose towards a New Management Theory (SPOJ) launched
The main objective of the SPOJ project is to explore and promote the concept of purpose-driven organizations and contribute to improving business practices in the direction of greater purposefulness, through harmonizing personal and organizational purpose and applying contemporary management paradigms and models, particularly the concept of Management by Missions (MBM) as an innovative approach to management. The specific objectives of the project include developing a theoretical framework for aligning personal and organizational purpose, creating an instrument for measuring the level of purposefulness in business organizations, and producing guidelines for improving organizational management through MBM. The project also plans to establish a Laboratory for Purpose-driven business to foster further research and raise awareness of the importance of purposeful business across academia, the business sector, and the wider public.
The project will be implemented from February 19, 2026, to February 18, 2031, with a total budget of €246,100.00.
In addition to Associate Professor Ivan Malbašić, PhD, the project team from the University of Zagreb Faculty of Organization and Informatics includes Associate Professor Martina Tomičić Furjan, PhD, Nikolina Dreven, PhD, Larisa Hrustek, M.Sc. in Economics, Lorena Pikl, M.Sc. in Economics, and Associate Professor Gianluca Gionfriddo, PhD from Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Italy. External team collaborators include Professor Carlos Rey, PhD and Miquel Bastons Prat, PhD, from Universitat Internacional de Catalunya in Spain, Professor Andrea Piccaluga, PhD, from Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Italy, Professor José António Porfírio, PhD, from Universidade Aberta in Portugal, and Marija Kurtović, M.Sc. in Economics, a doctoral student in the Postgraduate Study Program in Digital Innovation Management.
During the meeting, the project’s objectives and planned activities for the upcoming period were presented. Emphasis was placed on the activities to be carried out in the first year of the project, and the initial steps and operational plan for implementing the project activities were agreed upon.
