Irina Maričić works at the intersection of academic research, economics and psychology.

She is a doctoral researcher focusing on decision-making and autonomy, holds a Master’s degree in Economics with a specialisation in Marketing, and is a certified facial coder. Her psychotherapy training further informs her understanding of how people interpret experiences, make decisions and organise behaviour.

Her professional experience has been shaped by many years in marketing, working with markets, brands and consumer behaviour in real business contexts.

Her work integrates empirical research, psychological understanding of human behaviour and the economic logic of business performance. HUME emerged from this interdisciplinary perspective.

She approaches the hotel experience simultaneously as a research problem, a psychological process and a source of economic value. This perspective enables her to analyse what guests experience, how evaluations and decisions emerge from that experience, and how these ultimately affect business outcomes.