Charting new waters: cultivating creativity through international student mobility program

Purpose This study aims to employ the componential theory and interactionist perspective of creativity to explore how cognitive and affective transformations foster creativity. It investigates the influence of dispositional factors (cultural intelligence, ambiguity tolerance, social awareness) and contextual factors (international learning experiences) on students’ self-efficacy and subsequently on creative process engagement (CPE). Additionally, it examines the moderating role of cultural distance in the relationship between self-efficacy and CPE. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted with 1,829 Indonesian students involved in international student mobility (ISM). The hypotheses were tested using partial least square structural equation modeling. Findings The study found that dispositional factors (cultural intelligence, ambiguity tolerance, social awareness) and the contextual factor of international learning experience significantly enhance self-efficacy. In turn, self-efficacy significantly promotes creative process engagement. Specifically, self-efficacy fully mediates the relationships between cultural intelligence and CPE, as well as international learning experience and CPE. It also partially mediates the relationships between ambiguity tolerance and CPE, and social awareness and CPE, with both being complementary mediations. However, cultural distance did not moderate the relationship between self-efficacy and CPE. Originality/value This study addresses the research gap by focusing on creativity as a process in the context of ISM. By integrating a comprehensive perspective of creativity, this study provides new insights into how dispositional and contextual factors interact to shape self-efficacy and creative engagement, especially in the context of emerging economies such as Indonesia. The findings underscore the importance of self-efficacy in fostering creative engagement among university students who experience ISM and offer valuable implications for educational practices and policies aimed at enhancing creativity in higher education.