Meet a researcher
Photo: Angelika Klang.
Antoaneta and Iman will study how nonprofit charitable organisations can manage their work with volunteers in ways that promote long-term sustainability, high-quality services and satisfied beneficiaries. Together, they received a project grant in economic sciences from the Ragnar Söderberg foundation in 2025 for the four-year project Resource management in nonprofit organizations: How volunteer management practices shape service quality and beneficiary satisfaction in nonprofit organizations.
“Our focus is on how specific practices, such as onboarding, scheduling, motivation and training, affect whether volunteers stay with an organisation. It is about factors such as continuity, respect and the sense that the organisation is credible and fair. We will also look at what organisations need for different types of volunteers,” says Antoaneta.
Interdisciplinary research
The House of Innovation is a research and education centre at the Stockholm School of Economics focusing on innovation, digitalisation and entrepreneurship.
“Researchers here work across disciplines and have links to the business sector, civil society and international research. Having many international researchers from different fields is a great advantage, as we all have extensive networks around the world,” says Antoaneta.
“When Iman joined the Stockholm School of Economics a few years ago, we quickly discovered shared research interests, with our different backgrounds complementing each other. The project addresses a gap in research on charitable organisations and volunteers, where there is a need for clearer models for improving organisations’ activities through better volunteer management,” Antoaneta explains.
“I’m grateful to have received the grant from the Ragnar Söderberg foundation. One reason I came to Stockholm was the Swedish approach to research. There is a friendly atmosphere here, an understanding of how we work and a strong general interest in research,” says Iman.
Strong commitment to volunteering
The study is being conducted in Sweden, a country known for its high level of voluntary engagement and high levels of trust among citizens, but where expectations of professionalism and accountability are also increasing.
“For commercial companies, it is relatively easy to measure success in financial terms and compare results. Nonprofit organisations have very different objectives, such as providing humanitarian aid or ensuring that food, tents and shelter reach people who need them. These outcomes are much more difficult to measure and compare,” says Iman.
The project will use a combination of methods, including interviews, observational studies and large-scale surveys. The research group will also conduct a field study in which they implement a volunteer management system and study its outcomes. This will provide a broad picture of how different approaches work in practice, as well as how beneficiaries perceive the organisation’s activities and services.
“Our aim is for the project’s findings to help nonprofit organisations create greater and more lasting benefits for society,” says Antoaneta.
The desire to help
“After completing my PhD, I wanted to make sure that my research remained closely connected to what happens in the real world, and the Stockholm School of Economics provides an excellent environment for this. Here, I teach Operations Management at the organisational level,” says Iman.
“My focus is on Supply Chain Management, with a particular emphasis on logistics and operations in humanitarian, healthcare and nonprofit organisations,” Iman explains.
Antoaneta’s research lies at the intersection of Operations Management and HR. Her teaching at the Stockholm School of Economics focuses on strategic thinking about how organisations can design their processes and operations.
“When I wanted to broaden my academic experience, I chose Sweden, a country where people have great respect for education and research. The Stockholm School of Economics has excellent resources and highly engaged students. It is an honour to teach here,” Antoaneta concludes.
Antoaneta is from Burgas in Bulgaria and moved to Spain at the age of 19 to study.
“I first completed a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at Saint Louis University, followed by a master’s degree in International Management at IE Business School, IE University in Madrid. After graduating, I worked as a consultant and service manager. I later returned to academia and completed a master’s degree in Research Methodology in Management Science and a PhD in Business Studies specialising in Operations Management, both at IE Business School, IE University,” Antoaneta explains.
The city where Iman lived in Iran was struck by a major earthquake when he was a child, and people lived in tents for a long time afterwards.
“The idea of helping the organisations that came to support those affected stayed with me from an early age,” says Iman.
Iman began his studies in engineering and went on to complete a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering at Iran University of Science and Technology in Tehran. He then received his PhD in Business Administration, specialising in Supply Chain Management, from Arizona State University. He has also spent time as a visiting researcher with INSEAD’s Humanitarian Research Group.
Under the heading Meet a Researcher, we publish interviews with researchers who have received funding from the foundation. Earlier this year, we interviewed Monica Svantesson, Daniela Calvigioni, Autilia Arfwidsson and Emma Bell.
Last year, we interviewed Eszter Lakatos, Alexander Pietras, Julian Nowag, Hanna Almlöf, Konrad Burchardi, Sofia Lodén (Young Academy of Sweden) and Anni Carlsson.
In 2024, we interviewed Agnes Hellner, Anna Brattström, Erik Lindqvist, Suraya Kazi, Mia Phillipson, Wei-Li Hong, Vicente Pelechano and Annika Lindskog.
