Cultural heritage has, for a long time, been considered a source of wealth and well-being for economies. Currently, considerable investments have been allocated for its renewal and maintenance that often surpass the budgets of owners, local communities, and other interested users. Cultural heritage valorisation is expensive and is a great economic challenge. Infrastructural investment, i.e., conservation and restoration, are just one part of the total costs of cultural heritage preservation, while other investments relate to regular operation and maintenance. One of the most difficult decisions for those who design the cultural heritage restoration projects is how to finance them, i.e., what the most efficient financial instruments are for renewal of cultural heritage. These assumptions have instigated interest in the evaluation of services resulting from common good functions of cultural heritage, such as economic, educational, historical, technological, ecological, and climate, as well as tourism and recreational. Therefore, this article starts from the analysis of potential funding sources for cultural heritage through the European Union (EU) funds; a method of economic evaluation of the return on investments and cost–benefit analysis is suggested as a method that should be used in decision making on these interventions.

Entrepreneurs are constantly looking for new models to address growing global challenges in a sustainable manner. Over the past several decades, those challenges have been identified and responded to through the development of social entrepreneurship. There is a number of research dealing with the theoretical concepts of those topics; however, the definitions and framework for action are different from country to country. Having in mind that the main idea of social entrepreneurship is to enable decent work for employees and to gain broader welfare for communities, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the development of social entrepreneurship in Croatia. The research is focused on recent developments, connecting key definitions and principles of social entrepreneurship with common trends and concrete case studies. This study’s results show that there are different approaches to social entrepreneurship globally. However, social entrepreneurship in Croatia develops within a clear legal framework. The current state of social enterprises is connected with respective public policies, while the number and types of social entrepreneurs are constantly rising in the last few years. The results of the analysis also show that there are still actions to be taken in order to encourage future policy measures aiming to support social entrepreneurs in Croatia.

This paper provides an overview of methods for assessing social impacts, their achievements, and possibilities of application in everyday practice for assessing the worth of investments in cultural heritage conservation, as well as its sustainable use. It gives an overview of available methods for social assessment and points to a set of interdisciplinary indicators by which those impacts can be evaluated. Possibilities to use social impact analysis in the assessment of cultural heritage are presented in this paper through two case studies in the Republic of Croatia: the implementation of social evaluation management plan for the old town of Buzet and the evaluation of social effects of investing in the museum Ivana’s House of Fairy Tales. Some qualitative indicators of the collected surveys related to social effects are described, while the analysis of the availability of such indicators and the scientific basis of the collected answers are provided. In conclusion, the contribution of the methodological tools used and social impact assessments in the evaluation of cultural heritage interventions are presented, while suggestions are made for various decision- makers on those broader methods and benefits compared with the use of only financial and economic impact evaluations.

The knowledge, attitudes and perceptions of the high school students on Croatia’s European Union (EU) accession event were omitted in numerous public opinion polls conducted since the 2013 accession. Therefore, the paper shows key benefits of Croatia’s EU accession and the recent attitudes of high school students about the meaning of this event for their future lives. Research methods include desktop analysis regarding previous researches of the population attitudes and a quantitative survey conducted in January 2017 on a sample of a total of 1944 school graduates who were interviewed on issues of knowledge, perception and attitude to the event of Croatia’s entrance and membership in the EU. The results point out that although Croatia acquires significant benefits from the EU accession, the very event is not recognized as being the key one by high school students. Considering that in many cases the youth opinion is the best indicator of overall social problems and considering the future programs and obligations as well as the role expected from the youth in implementation of these programs, the research findings on the perception of the event of Croatia’s accession to the EU are a field within which future policy activities are envisaged.

The application of blockchain technology in the field of environmental economics is still in its inception so it is not sufficiently used in a holistic and integrated life cycle sustainability assessment (HILCSA). The capability of the blockchain to provide a verifiable and transparent record can make it a good tool in environmental economics for an agile reflection in doing business and production. The research is focused on the advantages and challenges in the inclusion of blockchain technology into a holistic life cycle assessment. Based on the existing possibilities of using blockchain technology in environmental economics and life cycle assessments (LCAs), a framework and a model for applying the blockchain in the holistic life cycle sustainability assessment are proposed. A Design Science methodology was used as a research strategy. Particular emphasis in this paper is put on risk management when integrating blockchain methodologies through environmental economics into the life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) in order to use all the advantages of the blockchain technology optimally.