Cultivating Sustainable Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: How Creativity Transforms Motivation into Entrepreneurial Attitudes Among First-Year University Students

<ns7:p> Background Youth unemployment in emerging economies threatens sustainable development, yet universities remain underutilized as entrepreneurial ecosystem builders. This study addresses a critical gap in understanding how psychological mechanisms shape entrepreneurial attitudes—essential for SDG 8 (Decent Work) and SDG 4 (Quality Education). We examine whether entrepreneurial creativity mediates the intrinsic motivation–entrepreneurial attitude relationship, and whether perceived family support moderates this pathway—a moderated mediation model rarely tested in collectivist, emerging-market contexts. Methods A cross-sectional survey of 600 first-year students from public and private universities in northern Peru (Trujillo, Piura, Chiclayo) was conducted using validated instruments with a 5-point Likert scale. The moderated mediation model was analyzed using Hayes’ PROCESS Model 14 with 5,000 bootstrap resamples and bias-corrected 95% confidence intervals. The measurement model was evaluated through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with configural, metric, and scalar invariance testing by university type and gender. Results Creativity fully mediated the motivation→attitude relationship (indirect effect: β = .25, 95% CI [.19, .32]), while the direct effect was nonsignificant (β = .05, p = .214), indicating motivation operates exclusively through creativity development. Family support significantly moderated the creativity→attitude pathway (interaction: β = .11, p < .001), with amplified effects at higher support levels (+1SD: β = .65 vs. −1SD: β = .39). The Johnson-Neyman threshold identified a critical family support value of 2.3 on the 1–7 scale. The model explained 51% of variance in entrepreneurial attitude (R <ns7:sup>2</ns7:sup> = .51), with superior predictive validity compared to the base model (Q <ns7:sup>2</ns7:sup> = .32 vs .26). Conclusions In collectivist contexts such as Peru, intrinsic motivation is associated with entrepreneurial attitude through entrepreneurial creativity, consistent with a conditional indirect-effect interpretation rather than a causal one. Universities may benefit from piloting creativity-enhancing pedagogies integrated with family engagement programs to build sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems, particularly in regions with strong familial values. </ns7:p>