Title: Examining the influence of demographic factors on the adoption of managerial innovations in local government

Authors: Nataša Rupčić; Mirjana Grčić Fabić; Helga Pavlić Skender

Addresses: Faculty of Economics and Business University of Rijeka, Ivana Filipovića 4, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia ' Faculty of Economics and Business University of Rijeka, Ivana Filipovića 4, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia ' Faculty of Economics and Business University of Rijeka, Ivana Filipovića 4, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to elucidate the effect that managerial demographic attributes of age, gender, education and experience have on the adoption of managerial innovations in local government. The results show that the selected demographic characteristics of chief administrative officers do not serve as an indicator of managerial innovation adoption in local government. The findings also indicate that the development of the Croatian local government is presently not under significant influence of the new public management paradigm. Our findings confirm some earlier findings and offer new insights into the behaviour of local government from the managerial perspective. This paper also makes an important contribution to the understanding of the local government practices in Croatia. In that way, we have responded to the call to conduct research in other socio-cultural contexts, especially on the level of local government.

Keywords: managerial innovations; local government; demographic factors; new public management; NPM; Croatia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRDM.2023.136347

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 2023 Vol.23 No.3, pp.183 - 206

Received: 01 Dec 2020
Accepted: 18 Aug 2021
Published online: 31 Jan 2024 *

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