Purpose: The study was conducted to determine the factors affecting the creative capacity of young lecturers in the Vietnamese higher education system.

Theoretical framework:Creativity is the creation of new and helpful ideas in the field of science, art, business, and everyday activities (Amabile, 1996; Amabile, 1997). According to Woodman et al. (1993), creativity is the creation of new products, services, ideas, procedures, or processes that are useful and valuable. Kreitner & Kinicki (2004) argued that creativity is defined as the process of using imagination and skills to develop a new, unique idea, product, or process. Creativity is a difficult concept to define, researchers do not fully agree with any single definition (DiLiello & Houghton, 2006).

Design/methodology/approach: An official survey was conducted from March to April 2022. The selected subjects are young lecturers (under 40 years old) working at 15 universities in the higher education system in Vietnam. The number of survey questionnaires achieved was 328, andapplyingstructural equation modeling (SEM) to test the research hypotheses.

Findings: The research has pointed out four factors that have positive impacts on the creative capacity of young lecturers, including intrinsic motivation, creative self-efficacy, thinking style, and the support environment. Among these, intrinsic motivation is the factor that has the most influence on the creative ability of young lecturers.

Research, Practical & Social implications: Several managerial implications are proposed to promote the creativity of young lecturers. Firstly, universities should have policies to encourage young lecturers to accept challenges and come up with new ideas. Secondly, universities should build a system to receive, evaluate, support, and provide practical suggestions for creative ideas from young lecturers. Thirdly, universities should develop a policy of recognizing and rewarding their efforts.

Originality/value: In general, the study has achieved the set goals. The study has demonstrated four factors affecting the creative capacity of young lecturers in the higher educationsystem in Vietnam. All these factors have a positive impact on creative capacity