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 2 = .51), with superior predictive validity compared to the base model (Q 2 = .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.
Ballesteros et al. (Fri,) studied this question.