Empirical insights into the role of social entrepreneurship in sustainable rural development: evidence from Croatian agriculture

As one of the key elements in overcoming current social and economic challenges, social entrepreneurship is gaining increasing importance in Croatia. In agriculture, social entrepreneurship is primarily represented through the activities of civil society organisations and cooperatives. The community led local development approach as well as the bottom-up approach overall play a compensatory role in often inadequate conventional state incentive measures aimed at local and regional development. The focus of this paper is on actors who, besides being profit-oriented, are primarily driven by the aim of increasing the quality of life for poorly employable groups and creating positive and sustainable social and economic impacts. The results of the conducted research through desk analysis and focus groups emphasize the important role of social entrepreneurship in the sector of agriculture and rural development, as well as its impact on socio-economic development in Croatia.