Economic diplomacy: concept for economic prosperity in Croatia

The aim of this article is to analyse the Croatian economic diplomacy model to identify the model, revealing its effectiveness and providing possible recommendations for the future research in the area of economic diplomacy. Literature review for Croatia indicates an overall lack of national research on the subject matter from the empirical point of view. Such situation is partially a result of economic diplomacy being a new phenomenon in Croatia and with Croatian political structure struggling many years with internal public administration reorganisation, privatisation process and joining the European Union. Occasional theoretical approaches are presented with analysis coming from the questionnaire surveys. The empirical research contribution of the article highlights the Croatian volume of export of goods and its connection with diplomatic actors. The research is based on the gravity model of international trade and presents empirical findings in the analysis of Croatian economic diplomacy and its effectiveness regarding the Croatian export of goods. The research model confirms positive relationship between Croatian total exports and three independent variables: GDP, distance and staff employed in diplomatic mission.