ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with various notions and historical, contextual and conceptual issues that may contribute to the overall understanding of the Social Enterprise (SE) field in Croatia. It describes a typology of social enterprise in Croatia that is based on the EMES approach. The chapter describes the major institutional developments that have been observed in the SE field. It provides an insight into how the existing institutional environment relates to the different SE models. The chapter describes the extent to which existing institutional frameworks relate to and interplay with identified types of social enterprise. The origins of civil initiatives in Croatia can be traced back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The concepts of civil society, non-profit sector or third sector emerged in Croatia with the broad political, social and economic transition in the early 1990s. The terms “social entrepreneurship”, “social enterprise” and “social entrepreneur” are often used interchangeably; this is also the case in the Strategy.
