Heterogeneity and Competitiveness of Entrepreneurial Processes in the European Union with Special Attention on Croatia as Candidate Country

The paper investigates the efficiency of entrepreneurial processes in European Union member states and Croatia as a European Union candidate country. The authors follow the model of Davidsson (2004), who argues that entrepreneurial activity originates in three waves: the wave of ability, need and opportunity for entrepreneurship; the wave of perceptive ability, perceptive need and perceptive opportunity for entrepreneurship; and entrepreneurial motivation and activity. The authors of the paper argue that the efficiency of the transformations of one entrepreneurship wave to another can be measured by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) on the basis of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor database, which is a new approach to the analysis of entrepreneurial processes. The results indicate high level of heterogeneity of entrepreneurial processes among European Union member states. The authors give special attention to Croatia and conclude that the membership of Croatia in European Union would not threaten the entrepreneurial processes of this European Union candidate country.