The identity of a space cannot be discussed without reflecting on its economic contribution to creating a sustainable community. This approach is relevant for regions marked by specific conditions of economic development. It is undeniable that such economic units face developmental constraints, but they also possess valuable development potentials. Starting from identity as a characteristic of the system and its way of communicating with the environment, the economic identity of the Adriatic region is primarily approached from the perspective of the suitability of integrated economic policies to the regions specific development needs. With this aim, the effects of economic policies on the economic structure are observed, as well as their integration into national and international trade flows, and the effects of spatial placement of economic activities. Special attention is given to analyzing the region as a relevant economic entity on the international stage. These issues gain importance in the context of European integration processes, which are reflected in increasingly strong competitive pressures and demands for acceptance of appropriate legal regulations and institutional frameworks. Considering the above, a fundamental hypothesis can be formulated: although economic integration with the EU can provide a solid foundation for designing economic development and accommodating the regional specificities of the Adriatic region, disparities in development levels between Croatia and the EU under unified economic policies can lead to suboptimal effects. This situation requires Croatia to contemplate new solutions and appropriate development paradigms. The aim of the research is to assess the economic identity of Croatia and particularly the Adriatic region in an international context, from the perspective of EU enlargement, and to propose a sustainable development concept that, under the conditions of globalization and economic integration, enables maximum utilization of development potentials and synchronized economic development at the national and regional levels. The purpose of the research is to enable Croatia to achieve a satisfactory position in the global division of labor by maximizing the valorization of its endogenous development resources, especially in the Adriatic region. Bridging the development gap and the size gap represents the greatest challenge in this regard. The expected results, in terms of elaborating criteria for assessing the suitability of development concepts, will be evaluated through the development of various scenarios, contributing to the fund of applied economic knowledge.

Financial accounting in Croatia is based on IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) and Croatian tax regulations. However, accounting reporting for listed companies and other entities is not sufficiently defined within IFRS. Additionally, for the sake of harmonization, reporting should be aligned with EU requirements. It can be said that the current forms of reporting do not adequately meet all practical requirements placed upon them. Furthermore, changes in IFRS will significantly impact the presentation of business results. A particular issue is the discrepancies between accounting and tax laws and their impact on reporting. A specific segment of the accounting reporting problem is the verification of compliance with appropriate regulations and the prevention of manipulation. Therefore, the auditing segment and its impact on the quality of reports should also be investigated. The goal is to propose various models of accounting reporting and auditing that will provide higher-quality accounting information for target users. The basic hypothesis is that the proposed financial reporting models will result in more qualitative and suitable information for business decision-making. Scientific evidence is expected to demonstrate that the proposed model will provide higher-quality accounting reports for the targeted user groups. The results will be verified as follows: a) Through the method of comparison (including synthesis and analysis) b) Empirical research of secondary data c) Empirical research using surveys and interviews d) Statistical methods will be used to process the collected data to draw conclusions. With the development of the financial market in Croatia, integration into European structures, and the globalization of business, the issue of accounting reporting, specifically the content, quality, and transparency of reports, has become increasingly important. Improving the quality of financial reporting in Croatia can significantly impact the attraction of foreign capital.

The organization of the company is subject to the influence of numerous exogenous and endogenous factors that imply its changes. From the original functional structures, a transition was first made to divisional and then to matrix structures, and in recent times this transition was made to process and network structures. In the context of the latter, the transition from a structural to a process paradigm is crucial, resulting in a number of advantages as well as a number of weaknesses. These weaknesses caused by this transition caused many business process transformation projects to fail. Therefore, the question arises as to how to minimize this failure, if it cannot already be eliminated. The goal of this research is precisely to provide an answer to this crucial question, that is, to define a model that would ensure the minimization of negative effects resulting from the transition from a structural to a process paradigm. In order to achieve this goal, three hypotheses were set, namely: Hypothesis 1: The successful conversion of a structural to a process paradigm depends on the ability of the company to carry out the transformation of business processes. Hypothesis 2: The conversion of the structural to the process paradigm is more successful in multicellular than in monocellular companies. Hypothesis 3: Successful conversion of the structural to process paradigm results in better business performance. The examination of the mentioned hypotheses should provide the elements on which the model of the transition from the structural to the process paradigm will be built. This model will be presented in its integral form in the final report, while the partial results will be in the form of articles in scientific journals and reports at scientific meetings, one masters thesis and one doctoral dissertation, and a book on improving business processes. The results that will be achieved through this research are relevant not only for the theory of organization and management, but also for economic practice, especially the practice of Croatian companies where the transition from a structural to a process paradigm is only in its initial phase.

It can be said that the Croatian financial market is a part of the economy that leads in achieving European standards. Moreover, with Croatias approach to European integration, it has gained additional developmental momentum. Therefore, it is necessary to systematically investigate changes in the Croatian financial market. This task requires mathematical models which, with increasing market stability, provide reliable support for continuous monitoring, forecasting, and controlling processes in the financial market. The aim of the project is to investigate the theoretical foundation, and to build and apply appropriate mathematical-statistical model support for the analysis and management of various segments of the Croatian financial market and its correspondence with the environment. Given the significant interest from both financial practice and academic circles, this research should primarily offer understandable and easily applicable, yet mathematically and statistically correct, methods and techniques of financial management. The developed model support along with the formed database will serve for continuous monitoring and analysis of relevant financial indicators (yield curve, financial derivatives analysis, selection of optimal portfolios, risk measures, analysis of interrelationships of estimated efficient frontiers, analysis of relationships among financial indicators such as short-term interest rates, stock indices, or exchange rates, analysis of the volatility of various financial indicators, analysis of loans and leasing, and others). Special emphasis is placed on the analysis of the development of the Croatian financial market and its mutual influence within the Central and Eastern European countries. Therefore, all estimates and analyses will be performed both on the Croatian market and the markets of the Central and Eastern European countries. In the final phase of the project, a comprehensive presentation and interpretation of the obtained results will be made. It is necessary to observe to what extent the development of the Croatian financial market corresponds with current and future European integrations. This research should present the Croatian financial market to all direct and indirect participants and potential investors and financiers, but also bring closer and popularize the services of the financial sector among a larger part of the citizenry. The application of this research in educational and scientific-theoretical purposes is also important.

It is an undisputed fact that tourism constitutes one of the key elements of the overall, especially economic, identity of the Adriatic part of Croatia. Therefore, the economic health, competitiveness, and development of tourism actors in this region are elements that form and influence potential changes in the identity of this area. In this context, various forms of cooperation between tourism (and other) entities can be observed, which, by strengthening the competitiveness and market position of tourism companies, act as an indirect factor in the identity of the space where they occur. Despite the fact that the trend of inter-organizational cooperation has been on a significant rise for many years and that tourism, by its characteristics, is generically predisposed as an economic activity within which such cooperation is a conditio sine qua non for survival and development, data and research on the prevalence and characteristics of networking in various segments of the tourism industry are actually rare. This is also true for the hotel sector, which is often identified as the basic tourism activity and a measure of the development of the tourism offer. This paper aims to bridge part of this research gap by presenting the results of research conducted on a representative sample of hotels from the Adriatic region of Croatia and to illuminate the prevalence and basic characteristics of hotel associations in the given area.