Paper Title
Sustainability-Based Business Growth Model of Companies in Croatia

Abstract
In the context of global climate challenges, social inequalities, and increasing regulatory demands, sustainability has become a core element of modern business strategies. In Croatia, companies are progressively adopting sustainable growth models to meet regulatory requirements and as a strategic opportunity for innovation, resilience, and long-term competitiveness.The business growth model of a company encompasses various components that enable the understanding and monitoring of its long-term success and development. This study investigates integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects into business growth models, focusing on their influence on financial and non-financial performance in Croatian companies. Building on a comprehensive literature review and a quantitative survey conducted among 450 companies across Croatia, the study develops and empirically tests a sustainability-based business growth model. The model examines the role of ESG components alongside financial performance, risk management, innovation, and employee engagement. Regression analysis confirms that governance and environmental factors have the strongest positive impact on sustainable business success. At the same time, innovation demonstrates an unexpected negative effect, potentially due to the transitional phase of sustainability implementation. Financial results and risk mitigation also contribute significantly, whereas employee-related factors have a statistically significant but weaker effect. A limitation of this study is that it restricts research to a single country, Croatia. These studies align with the increasing academic and practical emphasis on sustainable development, which this research expands by empirically validating a sustainability-based business growth model specific to Croatian companies. Keywords - Sustainability, Business Growth Model, Sustainability-based model, financial benefits, non-financial benefits