ZHAO Binbin, LI Guobing, XIAO Nianle, ZHOU Daoping, SONG Yang, LI Chunyan
The coupling coordination of digital economy and sports industry represents a significant manifestation of the integrated development of the internet and the real economy. Based on panel data from 22 provincial-level regions in China from 2018 to 2022, this study calculates the coupling coordination degree between digital economy and sports industry. The obstacle degree model is employed to identify the constraining degree of evaluation factors within the digital economy and the sports industry, while a panel regression model is used to examine its external influencing factors. The findings reveal a general upward trend in the coupling coordination with significant regional disparities existing across the eastern, central and western provinces. Within the digital economy system, the primary obstacles, ranked in descending order of severity, are digital innovation capability, digital industrialization, digital infrastructure and industrial digitalization. For the sports industry system, the main obstacles are sports employment, sports output, sports investment, sports enterprises and sports consumption in descending order. Regarding external influencing factors, the level of economic development demonstrates the most robust and consistent influence on the coupling coordination between digital economy and sports industry. Based on the above, this study proposes paths to enhance this coordination: strengthening regional division of labor to adapt digital economy development strategies to local conditions; addressing weaknesses in sports employment and sports industry to classify and improve safeguard mechanisms for essential production factors of sports industry; and reinforcing comprehensive planning to foster the coupling coordination between economic development, digital economy and sports industry.