Motivational Factors and Their Effect on the Attitude Toward Entrepreneurship of Incoming Students: The Mediating Role of Creativity and Family Support as a Moderator

Entrepreneurship plays a critical role in addressing youth unemployment in emerging economies, yet the psychosocial mechanisms through which entrepreneurial attitudes are formed among first-year university students remain underexplored. This study examines whether creativity mediates the relationship between motivational factors and entrepreneurial attitude, and whether perceived family support moderates this mediation process. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 600 first-year students from public and private universities in northern Peru (Trujillo, Piura, and Chiclayo). Results revealed that entrepreneurial creativity fully mediates the relationship between intrinsic motivation and entrepreneurial attitude, while the direct effect was nonsignificant. Family support significantly moderated the creativity-attitude relationship, with stronger effects at higher support levels. The integrated model explained 51% of variance in entrepreneurial attitude. These findings demonstrate that intrinsic motivation operates through creativity development to shape entrepreneurial attitudes, and that family support amplifies this transformation. Universities in collectivist cultures should prioritize creativity-enhancing pedagogies combined with structured family engagement programs to effectively cultivate sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems among incoming students.