ADHD symptoms and entrepreneurial intention among Vietnamese college students: an empirical study

Purpose This study aims to develop a conceptual framework that integrated insights from Shapero and Sokol (1982)’s model of entrepreneurial event, Bandura (1977)’s social learning theory and clinical psychology to empirically test and discover the underlying mechanism of how attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) symptoms can influence student entrepreneurial intention. Design/methodology/approach The study uses structural equation modeling with a sample of 2,218 students from 14 universities in Vietnam. Findings The research reveals that although ADHD symptoms are not found to have the direct role in shaping student perceived feasibility entrepreneurial intention, these psychiatric symptoms have more influences and significances in the growth of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and perceived desirability. Also, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and perceived desirability are found to be full mediators in ADHD symptoms and entrepreneurial intention linkage. Besides, both perceived desirability and perceived feasibility partially mediate the entrepreneurial self-efficacy effect on entrepreneurial intention. Practical implications The findings provide policymakers and universities with important insights into how to nurture intention to become entrepreneurs among college students, especially those individuals. Originality/value The present study offers a new insight about the linkage between ADHD symptoms and entrepreneurial intention. Also, the model of entrepreneurial event and the social learning theory are shown to be unifying theoretical construct of the relationship between psychiatric symptoms and entrepreneurial intention among Vietnamese students.