The role of mindfulness and perceived social support in promoting students' social entrepreneurial intention

Objective: This study aims to demonstrate the positive relationships between mindfulness, perceived social support, and social entrepreneurship intention (SEI) using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB). Research Design & Methods: This study surveyed 525 students who have been taking social entrepreneurship courses of non-profit organizations in Vietnam. Data was collected through a pre-designed questionnaire at Google Form from August to October 2020 and analysed by structural equation modelling to verify the research model and hypotheses. Findings: The research confirmed the positive relationships between mindfulness, perceived social support, and social entrepreneurial intention (SEI). Among them, the role of mindfulness is the most important, because its impact on SEI is the strongest. This study has also shown that the components of the theory of planned behaviour have an intermediary role to strengthen the relationships in the research model. Implications & Recommendations: This study confirms the need to include mindfulness courses when training future social entrepreneurs to help them for acquiring the right attitudes and forming social entrepreneurial intentions. Contribution & Value Added: This study found that practicing mindfulness drastically changes entrepreneurs' attitudes towards social entrepreneurship. In contrast, perceived social support makes these entrepreneurs display a higher level of self-efficacy in forming social entrepreneurial intentions.