The paper addresses the issue of strategic misconceptions in creating a national framework for an industry of strategic importance. In this paper, the shipbuilding industry was chosen as a model for analysing the strategic adjustments of decision makers in business entities and on national level before EU accession and its consequences on the national economy as a whole. The importance of the topic arises not only from benefits that national economy once had from this base industry, but from the fact that shipbuilding is still one of European strategic industries, even though its concepts and values have changed significantly with the technological development and rise of the Eastern emerging markets.
The main hypothesis of the paper is that shipbuilding has a broad extent of externalities in the national economy, and therefore, by leading it properly, especially in times of high unemployment and low level of GDP growth, it can act as an important generator of economic growth. Considering the potential size of the system, the economy can enjoy positive externalities such as a high multiplier effect or spill-overs, no matter whether the shipyards are privatized or state owned. It is ultimately the States responsibility to ensure the infrastructure for industries declared as strategic, i.e. vital to national economic development.
This study reports on a survey of Croatian shipyards decision makers done in 2009 and the strategic line of reasoning the management had 5 years ago, during the pre-accession period. The findings will be compared to the present state of the industry. These findings are put into the context of the Croatian government shipbuilding development strategy, EU recommendations for the development of shipbuilding industry and their impact on the financial, organizational and managerial issues in Croatian shipyards.
The presented results are part of scientific projects: “Poslovna prilagodba hrvatskih gospodarskih subjekata tržišnom natjecanju u EU” (No 13.02.1.3.11) and "Koncepti i metode troškovnog i upravljačkog računovodstva u javnom sektoru Republike Hrvatske" (No 13.02.1.2.09)
