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Digital finance, market position enhancement and high-quality enterprise development: Evidence from China’s Sports Enterprises

Author

Listed:
  • Li, Zuozhi
  • Xiao, Yuliang
  • Qiu, Peng
  • Wang, Dingqing

Abstract

Amid mounting global economic complexity and business-environment uncertainty, understanding how firms can strengthen their market position in the digital era and thereby achieve sustainable, high-quality growth has become imperative. Drawing on the enabling effect of digital finance, this study focuses on all Chinese A-share listed sports enterprises from 2011 to 2022. Building on a solid theoretical framework, we employ a suite of robust econometric techniques, including fixed-effects estimation, two-stage least squares (2SLS) to address endogeneity, and mediation analysis, to identify and quantify the impact of digital finance on firms’ development quality. The results show that digital finance significantly enhances high-quality corporate development, and that this effect operates chiefly through market-position upgrading. Additional heterogeneity tests reveal that the positive influence of digital finance is more pronounced in non-state-owned firms, underscoring the moderating role of ownership structure. These findings contribute to the FinTech and strategic-management literature and offer actionable insights for policymakers and managers aiming to foster sustainable growth in the culture-and-sports industry.

Suggested Citation

  • Li, Zuozhi & Xiao, Yuliang & Qiu, Peng & Wang, Dingqing, 2025. "Digital finance, market position enhancement and high-quality enterprise development: Evidence from China’s Sports Enterprises," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 85(PD).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finlet:v:85:y:2025:i:pd:s1544612325014369
    DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2025.108181
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    References listed on IDEAS

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