From Mental Wellbeing to Sustainable Action: The Role of Burnout and Systems Thinking in Shaping University Entrepreneurs—A PLS-SEM Approach

Universities play a pivotal role in preparing future leaders capable of addressing complex sustainability challenges. This study examines how mental wellbeing and academic burnout affect sustainable entrepreneurship attitude (SEA) among university students, with systems thinking acting as a mediating competency. Drawing on a sample of 367 students from three universities in northeastern Mexico, PLS-SEM was applied to test a six-hypothesis model. Results confirm that mental wellbeing positively influences both systems thinking (β = 0.31, p < 0.001) and sustainable entrepreneurship attitude (β = 0.28, p < 0.001), while burnout exerts a detrimental structural association with both dimensions. Systems thinking partially mediates these relationships. The model explains 48% of the variance in SEA. These findings reinforce the importance of integrating psychological support and cognitive training into higher education programs, with direct implications for SDG 3, SDG 4, and SDG 8.
Keywords: sustainable entrepreneurship; mental wellbeing; academic burnout; systems thinking; higher education; sustainability education; PLS-SEM; Mexico; SDGs