YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN RURAL AREAS - REFLECTION ON CROATIA

Although rural areas have often been portrayed as picturesque settings in which various economic activities are undertaken, one of the main negative characteristics of modern-day rural areas relates to the outmigration of youth population. In this sense, recent advancements in academia have shown that entrepreneurship has been increasingly seen as an appropriate mechanism which could be utilized with the aim of socio-economic revitalization of neglected areas. Despite this fact, there is a lack of relevant sources which could be utilized when it comes to a systematic overview of entrepreneurship among youth population, specifically, in rural areas. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate which key challenges and obstacles that have been prevailing in modern-day rural areas have been aggravating development of youth entrepreneurship in rural areas. In this sense, it is of utmost importance to assess different policies and programmes which should be enabling youth population of rural areas to tackle successfully such obstacles and engage in entrepreneurial endeavors. The youth population in rural areas usually encounters three main types of constraints which refer to a lack of human, social, and financial capital. These issues have been specifically examined at the level of the Republic of Croatia. Almost the entire area of the Republic of Croatia could be categorized as a rural area and, in this sense, the Republic of Croatia does not constitute an exception when it comes to adverse effects prevailing in modern-day rural areas. Therefore, the main goal of this paper is to determine some of the main constraints in existing policies and programs at the level of the Republic of Croatia, which could be seen as appropriate for stimulation of entrepreneurship among rural youth population. A literature review undertaken as a part of this study has shown that at the level of the Republic of Croatia there is no unique program which would prescribe policies for stimulating and developing entrepreneurship among the youth population in rural areas. Key stakeholders which should be most responsible for the creation of such policies need to consider appropriate measures that need to be undertaken with the, primarily, aim of providing the youth population with enhanced access to quality entrepreneurship education. Not of least importance are structural changes that need to be made with regard to financial measures supporting the youth population and creation of supportive networks that enhance the social capital of rural youth entrepreneurs.