Nikola Knego

Internationalization in the Function of Retail Trade Concentration in the Croatia

Internationalization and concentration are two key processes that are taking place in retail markets of the European countries. The consequence of the internationalization process in retail trade segment is increasing significance of foreign traders in retail structures with, simultaneously, decreasing significance of national/domestic traders. The intensity of mentioned process differs from country to country and it is conditioned by number of push and pull factors that are accelerating of slowing down the process. Retail trade concentration process occurs in all European countries and it’s manifested with decreasing number of leading traders with simultaneous increase in their market share. Reached level of retail trade concentration is conditioned by the whole economy concentration level of each country. Retail trade internationalization process in Croatian retail market is influenced by the presence of foreign traders from EU markets. Foreign traders headquartered in one of the EU countries controlled 29.6% of total sales in food and grocery retail trade segment in 2007. The advantages and disadvantages of two mentioned processes will be explored in details and presented in this paper.

Footwear market in the Visegrad Group countries and the Republic of Croatia

The main objective of the paper is to analyze the position of relevant countries of the footwear sector at a world and European level in terms of the different variables and evaluate the strategic positioning of the different sector players. The paper offers a comprehensive picture of the footwear industry worldwide, focusing on the main trends at international trade, consumption and production. Also, the paper examines the position of the Republic of Croatia and the Visegrad group countires in the context of international trade, consumption and production of the footwear. The paper is essentially data-driven, and includes a synthetic description and analyse of the structure of the sector and of the different competitive factors affecting the sector’s evolution.

The Internationalization and Integration of the Croatian Economy through Regionalization

Regionalization and globalization are forms of business internationalization that differ in terms of their frequency and market distribution. There are more frequent examples of companies, and of entire economies, which have internationalized business in a regional direction, as compared to those that have globalized their businesses. Each regionalization and globalization is also at the same time the internationalization of business, while only some internationalization is also the globalization of business. The paper will take a detailed look at the position of the Croatian economy and some of its segments undergoing internationalization. The research shows how the Croatian economy offers an example of regionalization. The EU market is exceptionally important as a region for the Croatian economy. This can be supported by the market movement of the Croatian exchange of goods, import-export, foreign investment in the Croatian economy, contribution of regions like the EU with Croatian tourist results, and trading companies and their origin in the process of the internationalization of the Croatian distributive market.