Abstract
Lifestyle, non-economic motives have been recognised as a significant motivational factor for tourism and hospitality entrepreneurs. However, knowledge on the subject is mainly drawn from the perspective of western developed economies, with a paucity of studies focusing on transition and developing countries. This paper reports on a study which investigates tourism entrepreneurship within the former socialist countries, particularly focusing on Croatia. It argues that understanding of entrepreneurship can be enhanced if theories are contextualised within specific setting and industry sector and thus applies Morrison’s (2006) ‘drilling down’ model in investigating lifestyle entrepreneurship. The results reveal a non-existence of lifestyle entrepreneurs and a conceptual model is developed to encapsulate the complex range of factors which underpin the different behaviour of analysed entrepreneurs. Implications for entrepreneurship theory and further research are discussed.