The business environment in Croatia is still more limiting than stimulating for entrepreneurial activity, the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) survey shows.

The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor is the largest study of entrepreneurial activity in the world, and the first survey was carried out in 1999.. The latest survey was carried out in 2022 and covered 51 countries, including 22 in Europe and 18 in the European Union.

The GEM aims to establish what entrepreneurial activity depends on in a country, why there are differences between countries and what governments can do in building a stimulating business environment.

In Croatia, the GEM survey was conducted on a sample of 2,000 respondents.

Presenting the results of the survey, Professor Slavica Singer from the University of Osijek said that the business environment in Croatia still has more of a limiting than a stimulating effect on entrepreneurial activity.

Only two components – domestic market dynamics and the availability and quality of physical infrastructure (telecommunications and transport) had a stimulating effect on entrepreneurial activity last year.

On the other hand, government policies according to priorities and the regulatory framework, the presence of significant barriers to market entry, the low level of transfer of research to the business sector and the insufficient contribution of primary and secondary education to building the entrepreneurial competencies of young people had a limiting effect on entrepreneurial activity.

Croatia is below the EU average with regard to perceived product and service innovation, and optimism about new employment over the next five years. On the other hand, it is above the EU average with regard to perceived intentions to start a new business venture (9.4% as against the EU average of 5.3%).

Professor Singer said that the latest GEM survey revealed that Croatia is no longer a “macho” country because the gender aspect of entrepreneurship has balanced out.

She also noted that 63% of respondents in Croatia believe that being an entrepreneur is a good career choice, although the perceived social status of entrepreneurs is low as Croatia ranks at the bottom of EU countries in this regard, trailing 13 percentage points below the EU average.