Mental Disorders in the Entrepreneurial Context: When Being Different Can Be an Advantage

Mental disorders are prevalent, place considerable burden on the economy and lead to suffering for those with the disorders and their loved ones. However, there is a flipside. Evidence suggests that people with mental disorders can flourish and productively contribute to society through entrepreneurship. This paper explores the relationship between mental disorders and entrepreneurship. It builds a research agenda to propose that researchers explore the role of mental disorders in the entrepreneurial context. We show how such research will advance this new field of research, but also how it can develop novel insights and theories in entrepreneurship and contribute to theories on the psychology of work, career choice, and clinical psychology.