Table 20: Regional Level Institutions & Organizations
7.3 Croatia’s Potential for Change from Necessity to Opportunity Entrepreneurship
If entrepreneurship occurs at the nexus of the individual and the opportunity (Shane &
Venkataraman 2000) then changes to impact the potential of entrepreneurship have to occur here as well. Therefore, if Croatia intends to reach government defined goals of GDP growth by 2013, partly fueled by opportunity entrepreneurship, then focus needs to be
placed on developing entrepreneurial individuals and creating a munificent opportunity-defining environment .
Entrepreneurial Individuals in Croatia: The Kirznerian view of entrepreneurship suggests that entrepreneurial opportunities are always present in a society due to disequilibrium.
What makes these opportunities into an entrepreneurial event is the awareness of
individuals (Kirzner 1985). The capabilities of individuals and how opportunity-aware they are, in my view, are the most important components of entrepreneurship. Having a munificent environment is worthless if no one has the ability or the inspiration to exploit it.
The most important part of any individual’s capability set is his/her education because it will define all other components like career experience, personal experiences, and their
networks.
Education is addressed in two ways, first from the standpoint of general education and second from entrepreneurship education. General education can help change the scope of entrepreneurship in Croatia through continuing its excellence in math and science training.
Another way that general education can help change the scope of entrepreneurship is by changing primary, secondary and university level education to accommodate the needs of an export-oriented market economy. Some examples of necessary changes to make at these educational levels includes: instituting new formal and informal rules of teaching professionalism, having zero-tolerance for any form of corruption at the university level where it is most prevalent, and changing curriculums to encourage critical and creative thinking. Training teachers/professors should be a high priority.
The second way to address education in Croatia is through entrepreneurship education. I agree with the group of researchers (e.g.: Katz, 2003, Ireland & Hitt, 1999) who think that individuals can be taught entrepreneurial awareness and knowledge. Ideally,
entrepreneurship education should be offered from primary school through the university level. Of course, not every young person will become an entrepreneur just because they are exposed to entrepreneurship education. However, it could sensitize people to the existence of opportunities in their environment. It would, so to speak, give them “rose-colored glasses”
where they could learn to scan their environment for opportunities. An entrepreneurship education is never wasted since all professions would benefit from entrepreneurial thinking, e.g.: politics, banking, research, tourism.
Entrepreneurship education could solve another large problem in Croatia – the loss of her human capital to other nations. It is fathomable that the present brain drain could be slowed if Croatia’s scientists, engineers, doctors and other researchers had their rose-colored glasses on. If they look at their environment and see bleakness, could they not just as easily see a lot of potential for improvement; holes waiting to be filled? I believe that only the glasses are missing and that entrepreneurship education is one way to provide them.
The Opportunity-Defining Environment in Croatia: This paper assessed how six environmental factors could influence necessity entrepreneurship. Of the six, institutions were examined more closely. In Croatia, formal institutional structures are in place with solid goals yet are often unable to carry out those goals in a manner of efficiency. It has been suggested that weaknesses in the informal institutional structure may be the problem. What is the potential for growth-oriented entrepreneurship to evolve if informal institutions act as barriers? Educating the citizens of Croatia to be creative, open-minded problem solvers and recognizers of opportunities is one way to change informal rules, values and norms. Another way to do so is to make more room for the private sector’s influence in institutions
developing Croatian entrepreneurship. An example of the private sector’s potential is hinted at through the actions of The Business Innovation Center of Croatia (BICRO). Croatia’s government was proving to be too slow and unorganized in commercializing university research and technology. BICRO stepped in to take advantage of this void and eventually outperformed the government.
What does the private sector do that Croatia’s government cannot yet do? It has to adhere to the conditions and rules of the market, needing to be more nimble, relevant, and efficient in exploiting opportunities. The market judges lack of competence and bad decisions quickly and exposes them as a loss. The government does not have such stringent efficiency standards. The private sector also provides healthy competition to governmental and non-governmental organizations which eventually elevates their relevance and efficiency.
Individuals and the opportunity-defining environment have the power to change the scope of entrepreneurship in Croatia mainly by co-evolving with Croatia’s informal institutions. In summary, decision-makers in Croatia can support growth-oriented entrepreneurship by supporting the development of individuals in the following way:
Continuing with the excellence of the national curriculum in math, science and engineering.
Improving general education by mainly changing teaching methods from primary through the university level.
Instituting new rules of academic professionalism e.g.: zero-tolerance for corruption.
Designing a national entrepreneurship curriculum from primary school through university level.
Using entrepreneurship education as a solution to Croatia’s brain drain by teaching highly educated and talented Croatians to be seekers and exploiters of opportunities in their own nation.
Decision-makers can support the environmental factors in the following way:
Encouraging the private sector’s participation in institutions, programs and organizations catering to the development of entrepreneurship.
Instituting serious, far-reaching institution-building initiatives
Providing more financing flexibility in financial markets.
Instituting a national industrial strategy integrating peripheral regions’ needs.
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