This study aims to reveal how and when college students’ perception of teachers’ entrepreneurial leadership affects entrepreneurial intention, and to provide new ideas for improving college students’ entrepreneurial intention. Utilizing a stratified cluster sampling approach in this study, a questionnaire survey was conducted on 769 college students enrolled in two institutions in Hainan Province, China. The research findings indicate a significant and positive influence of college students’ perception of teachers’ entrepreneurial leadership on entrepreneurial intention. Moreover, this perception affects entrepreneurial intention through both a single mediating effect and a serial mediating effect involving creative self-efficacy and creativity. The moderated serial mediation model shows that when college students perceive a higher school innovation climate, the serial mediation effect of creative self-efficacy and creativity on the correlation between their perception of teachers’ entrepreneurial leadership and entrepreneurial intention is stronger. The results of this study have important reference value for further improving college students’ entrepreneurial intention both theoretically and practically.
