When Persistence Becomes Unsustainable: Entrepreneurial Addiction, Burnout, and Exit Intention

Entrepreneurial exit intention represents an important yet underexplored stage of the entrepreneurial process. Prior research has identified several antecedents of entrepreneurial exit intention, but it has largely overlooked entrepreneurial addiction and its underlying psychological mechanisms. Drawing on self-regulation theory, this study examines the relationships among entrepreneurial addiction, entrepreneurial burnout, career adaptability, locus of control, well-being, and entrepreneurial exit intention. Data were collected from 250 entrepreneurs in Thailand’s digital services, software, and food and beverage industries and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings indicate that entrepreneurial addiction is positively associated with entrepreneurial exit intention both directly and indirectly through entrepreneurial burnout. Internal locus of control weakens the relationship between entrepreneurial addiction and burnout, whereas career adaptability and well-being unexpectedly strengthen the hypothesized relationships. The study contributes to the entrepreneurial exit literature by identifying entrepreneurial addiction and burnout as important self-regulatory antecedents of entrepreneurial exit intention. The findings also provide evidence compatible with self-regulation theory and suggest that psychological resources may not consistently function as protective resources under conditions of excessive entrepreneurial engagement.