CREATION OF A CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT SUITABLE FOR ENTERPRENURIAL ACTIVITIES IN TRANSITION COUNTRIES

Abstract

There is a strong connection between the overall development of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial culture of the country in which entrepreneurship develops. Transition countries started to develop entrepreneurial culture quite late, thus facing a series of barriers to a full implementation of entrepreneurial values in their respective areas. Changing the concept of approach to entrepreneurship at the same time includes overall changes in socio-economic environment. Researches have shown that development of entrepreneurship is a result of general preconditions, such as finance programs, economic policy, openness of markets, etc., but also of important factors such as education as well as cultural and social norms. One's attitude and perception proved to have a significant impact on one’s inclusion in entrepreneurial activities, which depends on a perception of an entrepreneur in a certain society. Moreover, the perception of an entrepreneur depends on entrepreneurs’ status in society as well as on how much and in what way they are represented in media. Depending on an individual's opinion on availability of desirable jobs and opinion on her/his characteristics that would make her/him an entrepreneur, the individual decides whether to become an entrepreneur or not. Therefore, the combination of individual and social factors influences her/his choice. An aggravating circumstance in this process in some transition countries is a relatively high level of conservativeness in terms of development of entrepreneurship among members of marginal social groups, especially women and the young. There are fewer entrepreneurs among women and the young in comparison to other social groups. Education is certainly one of the main preconditions for these two groups' inclusion in entrepreneurial activities. Society requires a creation of an entrepreneurial climate which will prevent a creation of social barriers to inclusion of any group in entrepreneurial activities and which should start developing from childhood. The aim of this paper is to explore the elements of entrepreneurial culture influencing the development of entrepreneurship among women and the young in Croatia as a transition country. The paper will present the results of two researches conducted among student population with regard to students' attitude towards entrepreneurship. Moreover, the paper will analyze the differences in level of acceptance of women's predispositions to entrepreneurship between students from Bosnia and Herzegovina and students from Croatia. The researches were conducted through structured questionnaires on an accidental sample of students. Different methods of descriptive statistics were employed in processing the collected data. The conclusion will offer the possibilities which entrepreneurial education opens up among student population in transition countries aiming to raise the level of the overall entrepreneurial activity.