Authentic leadership is a positive leadership theory, conceptualized under the influence of positive psychology and positive organizational behaviour movement. Although it has become a recognized leadership theory, it is still somewhat neglected in the hospitality literature. To address this gap, the paper seeks to develop and test a conceptual model linking authentic leadership to organizational performance in the hospitality context. Hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multiple regression analysis on a sample of 226 employees from 24 hotels in Croatia. The research results confirmed the positive impact of authentic leadership on hotels’ operational performance, which was mediated by followers’ job satisfaction and performance. There was no empirical support for the hypothesized impact of authentic leadership on hotels’ financial performance. The findings suggest that authentic leadership behaviours, together with positive organisational settings, characterized by flexible organizational structure, are more likely to enhance desirable employees’ attitudes and behaviours, resulting in improved organizational performance.

Local government, as administrative units, performs a broad range of services that require to establish relations with outside partners, including those belonging to the private sector. Public procurement, due to the size of the involved financial flows, is government activity especially exposed to inefficiencies, corruption and dishonesty. There is an everlasting discussion on the ideal size and the range of services to be kept ‘in-house’ of local government units (LGUs).Transaction Costs Economics (TCE) represents a theoretical paradigm specially designed to interpret the issue of efficiency in inter-institutional relations. However, even though TCE might be envisaged as a tool for building better systems and institutions, practical experience suggests that efficient organization of complex multi-institutional systems is still a goal to be met. Therefore, public procurement procedures at LGU level are suitable to analyze the transaction costs. In an attempt to determine the main organizational features of the existing scope of institutions/entities involved in delivering services to citizens, we provided an overview of the complexity of inter-organizational relations at LGU level.In this paper, we present results of an empirical research of public procurement procedures from the perspective of LGUs in Croatia. Picking up on questionnaire responses from 200 LGUs that reported having held over 350 cases of providing services through contract agreements with ‘independent’ service providers, we formed an opinion of what could be the consequences of developing more structured public procurement procedures.

The aim of this research was to provide a better understanding of factors influencing the performance of (small) agricultural producers. Considering the importance of agricultural producers, not just for maintaining a steady supply of products but also for the preservation of the population (and cultural tradition) of rural areas, the development of sustainable agricultural business is a matter of public interest. This paper considers wine producers and their market channels, i.e., the factors influencing the relationship between wine producers and market intermediaries, by applying ideas taken from agency theory. We developed a conceptual model with our defined measure of agency costs as the mediator variable between multiple regressors and the firms’ financial and non-financial performance as regressions. We used the approach of Baron and Kenny to investigate whether agency costs act as a mediator variable. The data needed to test the proposed conceptual model were collected through questionnaires and contextual interviews with the Croatian wine producers (n = 124). We found that more self-reliance in the distribution process, supported by factors related to the bargaining strength, had a positive influence on wine producers’ performance. The results also support the assumption that agency costs act as a full mediator variable between a producer’s attributes and its performance.

Industries create specific business settings that exert a backward influence on industry prospects. In this paper, the manner in which two industries - the construction industry and the food and beverage processing industry - have behaved during a crisis period is examined and compared. First, the performance indicators available from statistic sources are compared; then, the panel data of the two subsamples of the largest Croatian firms in terms of capital and employment related to construction and food processing in the period 2005-2014 are subjected to comparison. The provided data demonstrate that the five largest business firms in the two industries have a tendency to employ different business behaviors specific to the industry they are part of. The basic idea behind this research was that industry characteristics are created by individual business firms through their adjusting their behavior, i.e. strategies, organizational design and operation models to perceived industry settings. So, in the longer time period, depending on resource availability at the firm level and the market opportunities in the industry, a dominant pattern of the business model will evolve. The research showed differences in the rate of the activity and business demography during the observed period. There is also evidence of different business models being employed in construction and food processing. However, at this stage of our research, we have not been able to establish a relationship between the business model employed and the firm's or industry performance.

For the past six years the Unger International Center for Local Government Leadership in the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio USA, has been collaborating with the Faculty of Economics, University of Rijeka and USAID’s Local Government Reform Project to advance education and in-service training for local government officials in Croatia. This paper presents an in depth review and analysis of focusing on its successes and challenges and the application of lessons learned to the future of public administration education, training and professional development in Southeast Europe.