"ADHD, Impulsivity and Entrepreneurship"

Entrepreneurship, Clinical Psychology, and Mental Health: An Exciting and Promising New Field of Research

“…The present study cannot speak to the effect of ADHD on venture performance or other entrepreneurial outcomes … Suffice to say, the connection between ADHD and later stages of organizing, profitability, and growth are yet unknown-and it is unlikely to be entirely rosy or dark." Similarly, the cited paper of Lerner, Hunt and Verheul (2018) elaborates at length on the potential of ADHD to undermine key venturing activities and explicitly notes the need for scientific skepticism in the face of the rosy popular media and celebrity-entrepreneur accounts -conclusions which related works have also noted (Lerner 2016;Lerner, Hunt & Dimov 2018;Wiklund, Yu, Tucker & Marino, 2017). Thus, we agree with the Commentary authors that it is premature to form conclusions, especially about ADHD being advantageous for entrepreneurial outcomes.…”

“…Several of the studies we conducted rely on the extent to which respondents self-report ADHD symptoms rather than whether they have a formal ADHD diagnosis. For example, in Verheul et al (2016;2015) and Wiklund et al (2017), the self-administered ADHD Self Report Scale (ASRS) was not used for diagnostic purposes but rather to determine the extent to which individuals report inattentive and/or hyperactive-impulsive symptoms.…”

Mental Disorders in the Entrepreneurship Context: When Being Different Can Be An Advantage

“…People with mental disorders make decisions in specific ways, which can influence the decisions they make regarding entrepreneurial entry and exit. For example, impulsivity is a defining feature of many disorders which might lead to unusually quick entry and exit decisions without much consideration of available information and/or the consequences of those actions (see e.g., Anthsel, 2017;Gunia, 2017;Johnson et al, 2018;Lerner et al, 2018;Wiklund et al, 2017a;2017b). Wiklund and colleagues (2017b) suggest that in high uncertainty entrepreneurial contexts, such rapid, impulsive decision making can be functional, which has been empirically corroborated (Wiklund et al, 2017a).…”

“…For example, psychologists have associated dyslexia with more original thinking (Tafti et al, 2009), ADHD with sensation seeking (White & Shah, 2011), bipolar disorder with perseverance (Hayden et al, 2008), and autism with pattern identification (Baron-Cohen et al, 2009). Recently, scholars have directly examined the connection between psychological disorders and entrepreneurship, finding positive associations between entrepreneurship and dyslexia (Logan, 2009), bipolar traits (Johnson et al, 2018), ADHD (Wiklund et al, 2017a), and mood disorders (Bogan et al, 2013).…”

Beyond methodological individualism and the myth of the entrepreneur: The systemic thinking model of entrepreneurship

“…As such, it is not antithetical to classical information processing models, which assume methodological individualism and conceive intentions as the necessary antecedent of entrepreneurial activity. Instead, it offers a synthetical framework to accommodate both classical and well-documented models such as the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) and new approaches suggesting that entrepreneurial action cannot be reduced to a deliberate cognitive process (Lerner et al, 2018;Wiklund et al, 2017). By instating and conceptualising the role of inductive mechanisms and affordances, the SysTM framework challenges the mythical view of entrepreneurs as visionary individuals who perceive opportunities, think carefully about what action to take, and then enact their thoughtful plan.…”