Conversion of creative potential into sports entrepreneurship

•We investigated the correlation between sports imagination and sports creativity.•We also constructed a model for predicting sports entrepreneurial intention.•The results validated a mediation model of sports entrepreneurial intention.•This model includes sports imagination as an antecedent and sports creativity as a mediator.•It also suggested a theoretical framework for cultivating sports entrepreneurship. Considering the dearth of studies on creative potential in sports and the contextual shift after the COVID-19 pandemic, we investigated the correlation between sports imagination and sports creativity and constructed a model for predicting sports entrepreneurial intention. In total, valid survey responses from 378 student athletes were subject to analysis. The results verified the proposed factor structure of each variable and validated a mediation model of sports entrepreneurial intention, including sports imagination as an antecedent and sports creativity as a mediator. Our findings suggest that conceiving sports imagination increases sports entrepreneurial intention by strengthening sports creativity; all other tested effects were marginal or nonsignificant. The current study contributes to the knowledge of athletic potential, sports education, and sports entrepreneurship by developing three valid scales and proposing a theoretical framework for cultivating and facilitating sports entrepreneurship.