The confidence to hustle: GenAI self-efficacy, ADHD symptoms, and perceived institutional supports as antecedents of entrepreneurial hustle

Entrepreneurial hustle, defined as urgent and unorthodox action in response to immediate obstacles and opportunities, is increasingly recognized as a distinctive driver of venture building, yet its antecedents remain underexplored. Drawing on social cognitive theory and the entrepreneurial action perspective, this study examines how two person-side factors (GenAI self-efficacy, conceptualized as a domain-specific efficacy belief, and ADHD symptoms) and two perceived environment-side factors (perceived regulatory and normative support) relate to entrepreneurial hustle through entrepreneurial self-efficacy. The model was tested with a three-wave, time-lagged survey of 316 Vietnamese entrepreneurs using covariance-based structural equation modeling with bootstrapped indirect effects and six control variables. GenAI self-efficacy, ADHD symptoms, perceived regulatory support, and perceived normative support were each positively associated with entrepreneurial self-efficacy, which in turn was positively associated with entrepreneurial hustle. ADHD symptoms also showed a direct association with hustle, although only marginal in the bootstrap analysis, whereas perceived normative support was related to hustle only indirectly through self-efficacy. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy mediated all four antecedent–hustle relationships, and supplementary analyses indicated that perceived regulatory support strengthened the self-efficacy–hustle relationship. The findings position entrepreneurial self-efficacy as the cognitive bridge through which confidence in using GenAI, neurodivergent tendencies, and perceived institutional conditions become urgent and unorthodox entrepreneurial action.