Ivija Bernatović earned her PhD at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, with a focus on family business, after completing her undergraduate and graduate studies at the Zagreb School of Economics and Management. She has presented her research at prestigious conferences such as the Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference and the European Academy of Management (EURAM). Additionally, she has participated as a panelist and moderator at family business conferences and international forums, including IFERA (International Family Enterprise Research Academy). She publishes scientific and professional papers with an emphasis on family business and innovation and has enriched her education through study programs at partner universities such as John Carroll and St. Ambrose in the USA, as well as the Luxembourg School of Business.
Currently, she is a Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Project Management, and Design Thinking, actively developing courses in the field of family business. She serves as the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at ZSEM and is a certified Design Thinking practitioner and Co-creator under the IBM Enterprise Design Thinking methodology.
She leads EU-funded projects focused on impact entrepreneurship, as well as projects related to family business succession. These projects include Erasmus Mundus in Impact Entrepreneurship (EMMIE) (emmie.uliege.be) and Succession in Family Business (SIFB) (sifb-eu.com).