Key challenges for further development of social entrepreneurship in Croatia

The specific goal of this paper is to contribute to the discussion of key problems and necessary steps to be undertaken in the further development of social entrepreneurship in Croatia. Quantitative research was applied through a survey questionnaire, the sample included 526 respondents divided into several target groups: unemployed persons, members of social cooperatives, youth, farmers and employees of social enterprises. Findings regarding relevant constraints relate mainly to legal, financial and tax system constraints, constraints in the segment of education and capacity building, inefficient bureaucracy and administration, ineffective support from the part of local and regional policy makers and stakeholders, the lack of horizontal and vertical coordination and numerous other. Despite the limitations, the potential for further development of social entrepreneurship is based on the excellent examples of good practice realized so far, on the relevant achieved results from the part of civil society organizations as well as on the existing initial scientific research on the topic.