Abstract
Small and medium-sized sports enterprises are an important part of China’s sports industry market innovation, it provides a steady stream of motivation for improving the technological innovation capabilities and high-quality development of the sports industry. However, the problem of difficulty in financing and expensive financing is still the key to hindering the innovation and development of small and medium-sized enterprises. Limited by theoretical perspective and research methods, previous studies are difficult to guide small and medium-sized sports enterprises to achieve health and high-quality development. In order to promote the high-quality development of small and medium-sized sports enterprises, the research constructs the theoretical framework of network embeddedness-financing capability-enterprise performance, and uses fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to explain the impact of network embeddedness and financing capability configuration on the performance under the concept of resource dependence and the heterogeneity of urban business environment. The results show that the enterprise should choose a suitable development model based on their own characteristics and the business environment they are located. The role of the business environment is crucial to the development of the enterprise. In the low business environment, the government should provide sufficient public services for them, and accelerate the transformation of high-quality development landing mode from cultivating enterprise network embedding and financing capability by enterprises to co-developing includes cities, financial industries and enterprises.
Keywords
Introduction
Small and medium-sized sports enterprises (SMSEs) have strong thinking vitality and the characteristics of rapid response to complex environments, but it’s difficult to support the high-speed and sustainable development needs of enterprises by relying on their own funds. Therefore, the financing environment has become the most common and serious problem that affects their stable growth. At present, the urban business environment directly affects the scale of investment promotion and business operations, and it has given the market competitiveness and financing advantages in the regional enterprises. It is an important reliance for successful financing of SMSEs. At present, the urban business environment directly affects the scale of investment promotion and business operations, and it has given the market competitiveness and financing advantages in the regional enterprises. It is an important reliance for successful financing of SMSEs. In the context of the combination of industries, cities, and finance, SMSEs have different business environment between SMSEs in different regions, that is there is a regional root difference in financing basic conditions between SMSEs under the perspective of financial support. From the perspective of the resource-based theory, the source of the company’s maintenance advantage comes from the root planting resources owned by the enterprise and their internal unique development capabilities. Under the bank-dominated financial support system, Existing research has analyzed the innovation and financing issues of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from the aspects of external financial instrument innovation (Zheng, 2019), credit system construction (Deng & Wang, 2012), etc. However, they have lacking attention to the problems of the growth of SMEs in the network embedding and financing capability, not to mention thinking about the differentiated growth path of SMSEs under the heterogeneity of urban business environment.
In order to promote the high-quality development of SMSEs, the research builds the theoretical framework of network embedding-financing capability-corporate performance in the business environment through the review of the previous literature from the perspective of resource dependence and heterogeneity, and uses fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to reveal the internal mechanism of network embedding and financing capability that affect the performance of SMSEs. The research breaks the research paradigm of long-term linear regression analysis in related fields. The research will rise from the discussion of the net effect of factors to the height of the cause set. The research will not only deepen the development theory of SMSEs, but also provide practical reference for the healthy growth of SMSEs.
Literature Review
Business Environment and SMSEs Growing
The business environment is the basis for attracting investment at the macro level of the city, and it is also an important reliance on financing of SMEs in the micro-level area. Its constituent dimension mainly includes soft environment, infrastructure, social services, total market aggregate, business costs, and ecological environment. Under the market background of openness, sharing, and innovation, the impact of regional resources on corporate performance is huge. However, SMEs still face hindrance factors such as backward technology, insufficient funds, and lack of human resources in the practice of innovation and development. Public service supply and market system theory believes that SMEs generally face the dilemma of “market failure” in business activities. The lack of internal capacity and power of the enterprise’s own internal capacity makes the enterprise need the external service provided by the government and the soft environment support of the talent attraction, investment attraction, innovation environment and market supervision created by the government’s business environment. While promoting the development of SMEs through the introduction of institutional policies, the government can also promote the flow between enterprises and market entities by providing public services and construction of urban soft environment to reduce the cost of corporate acquisition resources (Tang, 2015); The production and operation activities of SMEs are inseparable from the organic combination of human resources and market capital. Although superior hardware environment, stable institutional environment, and perfect business ecosystems can build a business environment that attracts external capital investment for enterprises, but if there is a lack of livable environment and supporting social services created by the people-oriented concept, it is very difficult to attract high-quality and high-tech talents to enter the regional enterprises, and the innovative business activities and operating performance of the enterprise will also be affected (Liu & Liang, 2019); the market capacity can reflect not only the development prospects of enterprise products and services, but also the capability and quantity of residents to purchase. The prospects of the enterprise and level of consumption of the residents are important factor that attracts the implementation of enterprises landing and regional investment.
The Impact of Network Embedding on Enterprise Performance
The network embedding is a continuous social relationship situation showed by enterprises in economic activities. The impact of network embedding on the performance and market competition advantages of enterprises has been generally recognized by the academic community (Chen et al., 2023; Cui et al., 2017; Ge et al., 2023). Different forms and performances embedded in the network will lead to differences in enterprise performance and competitive advantages, that is, the different positions and structures embedded in the network in the network will show differences in the performance level of enterprises (Liu, 2009). Therefore, the relationship and mechanism of performance and corporate network embedding has become an important part of corporate organization management research. The growth of SMSEs under the new development pattern depends on the support of high-efficiency production and supply systems, while the supply network, local network, and regional network of enterprises are important aspects that constitute the production and supply and domestic demand consumption system. Local and regions are spatial scope, and in different vision, it can be in the city and the provincial area. Based on the domestic economic cycle and scope of SMSEs, this study regards a single province as local area, regards geographical provincial areas as regions, and builds the network on this basis.
Supply Network and Enterprise Performance
The behavior of actors in socio-economic activities is both independent and spontaneous embedded in the network of interconnected interaction, and they will inevitably be affected by the social network (Granovetter, 1985; Uzzi, 1997). It focuses on describing the information role occupied by network members in the overall supply network structure (Gulati, 1998), reflecting the complementary resources, information sharing, social reputation, etc. produced by enterprises interaction (Gulati & Gargiulo, 1999; Polidoro et al., 2011). Supply network is one of the important forms of social networks. It has the same network characteristics and advantages of obtaining resources, and then creates conditions for the performance level of corporate performance. At the same time, corporate behavior will also be subject to the structure of network relations (Borgatti & Li, 2009), and it will have an important impact on corporate resource sharing, information transmission, business decision-making, corporate performance, and supplier organization management (Holmen et al., 2013). If an enterprise lacks the understanding of the supply network embedding, it will not make full use of the advantages of the supply network position, restrict the use of network embedded benefits, and then affect corporate performance.
Local Network and Enterprise Performance
The effect of institutional constraints and the agglomeration of the sports industry policy has increased the density of sports enterprises and the mutual influence between enterprises. Therefore, the local enterprise cluster network has formed. For example, various sports industry demonstration bases are the micro forms of the cluster of the middle viewing sports enterprise. The local network reflects the geographical space connection between universities, scientific research institutions and enterprises in the region, and a relatively stable cluster network structure formed by cooperation interaction. Due to the characteristics of irrelevant selection of root elements, the local cluster network passively embedded in multiple subjects can help network members to obtain external resources and produce synergistic effects between subjects, thereby improving regional production efficiency, innovation capabilities, and corporate performance levels. Specifically, first of all, from the perspective of the resources-based theory, the tangible and intangible diversified resources in the region can exert the resource value only by the capability to be transformed by each subject into its own unique capability, and therefore obtain sustainable development elements and competitive advantages (Wernerfelt, 1984). The Local network embedding strengthens the degree of network connection between regional subjects, promotes communication, interaction, and cooperation among the subject, and helps enterprises obtain complementary and heterogeneous resources from the external environment. It can also promote the unique capabilities of each subject, improve regional resource utilization and generate joint efforts, and enhance the innovative operating performance of regional enterprises. Secondly, industrial agglomeration and industrial cluster are an important form of local network embedding (Tao et al., 2018). Through a specific division of labor cooperation process, the industries in the region can form a systematic and modern industrial chain, which stimulates the competitiveness of the enterprise market and the regional industrial agglomeration effect. Due to the convenience of geographical location and the superiority of the business environment in the local cluster, diversity subjects in the local cluster reduce the cost of enterprises in transportation, communication, and transactions. In addition, the diverse subjects in the same area are affected by the external environment of the same system, and the subjects are easy to form an innovative development alliance to innovate products and services. Thirdly, the embedded in the local network will strengthen the technology overflow effect of regional technology. The improvement of corporate performance rely on absorbing and application external knowledge technologies, so local network embedding requires enterprises to strengthen resource acquisition capabilities.
Regional Network and Enterprise Performance
Related studies have confirmed that the local network embedded in the innovative performance (Zhang & Yang, 2015) and production efficiency (Tao et al., 2018) of enterprises in the region has a positive promotion effect. With the continuous advancement of the globalization process, the cooperation between enterprises in various countries have become more frequent, and the degree of embedding of regional international networks has continued to deepen (Li et al., 2019). Local industrial cluster networks are affected by the development of global economic development, local production networks often embed the regional and international networks in the form of sub-networks. Enterprise production and operation efficiency in the local cluster network is also affected by regional networks and international networks (Song & Wang, 2017). The international network embedding allows companies not only to communicate and cooperate with foreign companies in terms of innovative projects and management experience, but also help the construction of development mechanisms such as investment and financing, learning, and trust among enterprises at home and abroad, thereby enhancing the effects of knowledge overflow and reducing the production transaction costs, such as knowledge transfer and technologic innovation (Li et al., 2017; Xiao et al., 2017). China’s regional economic integration strategy is also an embedded form of regional network embedding in the new development pattern and the background of the development of the new era. Under the strategy of regional economic integration, the free flow of elements between regions and subjects will change the method and pattern of resource allocation. Capital, information, talent, and other resources will flow to the same industry enterprises with high element return and high productivity. The expansion of the investment scale of the enterprise will improve the production efficiency those who put heterogeneous and high-quality production factors into enterprise production, thereby improving corporate performance and core competitiveness. Therefore, industrial enterprises with high growth, high yields, and comparative advantages will make profits due to changes in resource allocation in the process of regional economic integration. The coordinated development of regions such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, the Yangtze River Delta, Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macau can be regarded as the exploration and model of the region network construction of the governments. Moreover, space agglomeration and overflow in geographical economics show that there is an inevitable influence between the two adjacent space units. For SMSEs, the production resources of adjacent spaces are more convenient to exchange products, and consumer groups also have more sports culture and value recognition. Therefore, the trading activities of SMSEs must consider the foundation of a wider regional network composed by adjacent areas.
The Impact of Structure Embedded on SMSEs Performance
The frequency of communication between enterprises and other members of the internet is positively correlated with the level of sales and profits (Lee, 2001). The network embedding has a positive impact on the performance of the enterprise (Tian et al., 2017), and the supply network relationship will significantly promote the improvement of the financial performance level of logistics enterprises (Zheng & Wang, 2021). It can be seen that strengthening communication and connection among online member companies can help spread and transmit hidden knowledge and heterogeneous resources, and create resource advantages for enterprise development, and companies that possess center and key network positions will also obtain more development resources and generate a high-efficiency resource transfer process. Some scholars introduced social network theory to study the performance of new enterprises and SMEs performance. They found that corporate organizations can use social network relations to enrich the company’s own resources to carry out enterprise production and operation activities (Leung et al., 2006). It can be seen that structural embedding can help companies break through the boundaries of the development and enter a wider network environment to find and match external resources to obtain better development opportunities and higher corporate performance for newly-founded enterprises and SMEs with smaller scale and lack of resources (Rui & Zhuang, 2014).
The Impact of Financing Capability on SMSEs Performance
The urban business environment reflects the financing conditions of SMEs to a large extent, and the scale that SMEs can finally obtain financial support depends on their own financing capability. That is, under the perspective of the heterogeneity of the business environment, whether the region has a high financing advantage and whether SMSEs have strong financing capability have become the key to whether it can effectively respond to the financing dilemma encountered in different life cycles. The Chinese financial system is dominated by banks. Therefore, maintaining a stable and good relationship with financial institutions such as SMSEs and banks is an important way to ease the financing dilemma. This financing method can strengthen the network connection intensity of financial institutions such as SMEs and banks, reduce administrative links such as information asymmetry and approval in the process of financing, and is conducive to enterprises to obtain innovative funds. In addition, strong financing capability can continue to stimulate the financial institutions’ willingness to invest in the innovation project of SMEs. Therefore, improving the financing capability of SMEs can be regarded as an important way to cross-enterprise relations as a hindrance to improving the performance. Successful financing is an important condition for enterprise development, and network embedding can increase the probability and opportunity of successful financing (Liu et al., 2022; Lu et al., 2020). Lăzăroiu et al. (2020) conducted a systematic literature review on sustainability management and performance in urban enterprise economy. The study emphasizes that the sustainable dynamic management systems is pivotal in bringing about sustainable business development and practices within companies. In the research related to financing capability, financial ratio is considered to play an important role in revealing the financial robustness of enterprises, which can help maintain the competitive position of enterprises, achieve stable development, and eliminate potential financial risks (Kliestik et al., 2020).
The Impact of Enterprise Characteristics on SMSEs Performance
Moreover, enterprise performance is also affected by factors such as its size and type of activity. As an important indicator of investment institutions to determine whether to invest, the size of the enterprise is closely related to the capability of the enterprise to obtain resources (Chen & Jia, 2021), and it has a certain impact on performance (Li et al., 2015). In addition, the sports industry is a composite industry across the second and tertiary industries, it has the internal structure of sports products and related product manufacturing, sports service industry and sports venue facilities. The first two types of enterprises are different in terms of activities, resources, and capabilities.
Model Construction
Previous studies have not revealed the mechanism of network embeddedness and financing capability affecting enterprise performance. Under the perspective of resource dependence theory and the overall network, there may be a causal relationship chain that drives the performance improvement of SMSEs in different business environmental situations, showing that the network embedded and financing capability are expressed conflict equivalent. Based on the above analysis, the theoretical model of “network embedding-financing capability-enterprises performance” theoretical model is proposed (Figure 1).
Theoretical model of “network embedding-financing capability-SMSE performance.”
Research Methodology
Case Selection and Data Collection
The research defines small and medium-sized sports enterprises as an economic entity that is engaged in 11 categories of activities such as sports competition performance activities and sports fitness and leisure activities in accordance with the current criterion “Statistical Division Method of Large, Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (2017).” According to the above classification criteria, the culture, sports, and entertainment industry belongs to other unspecified industries, which is based on the classification of employees between 100 and 300 people for medium-sized enterprises, between 10 and 100 people for small enterprises. In addition, such as sporting goods manufacturing enterprises, sporting goods wholesale enterprises, sporting goods retail enterprises, sports enterprises engaged in software, and information technology service activities are distributed in other industries, and their enterprise scale is divided according to their respective industry standards. For example, for sporting goods manufacturing enterprises, according to the standard of industrial division, enterprises with employees between 300 and 1,000 and operating income between 20 and 40,000 million yuan are medium-sized enterprises, and enterprises with employees between 20 and 300 and operating income between 3 and 20 million yuan are small enterprises. For sporting goods wholesale enterprises, according to the wholesale industry standards, enterprises with 20 to 200 employees and operating income of 50 to 40 million yuan are medium-sized enterprises, and enterprises with 5 to 20 employees and operating income of 10 to 50 million Yuan are small enterprises.
The study selects SMEs with the main business as sports-related activities for research samples in Chinese SMEs’ shares transfer system, uses the annual report, and information of the SMSEs in CSMAR Database and Choice Financial Terminal as the source of data, thereby building a small and medium-sized sports enterprise network and matching related data such as enterprise performance.
Method
Two-Mode Network Construction Method
Compared with the one-mode network, the two-mode network can incorporate all companies that have a certain or more relationship with a certain company into the network. It can not only avoid the problem of too small network density, but also get closer to the real situation of the market. The study builds a supply network between SMSEs through the two-mode network of “SMSEs-major suppliers/customer provinces.” (1) Inquiry of SMSEs in the national stock transfer system through Choice Financial terminals, and finally determined the sports enterprises, excluding sports enterprises with incomplete data. (2) Query the above five suppliers and customer information of the SMSEs from 2014 to 2020. (3) Establish a small and medium-sized sports enterprise-major supplier/customer name relationship list, determine the province where the main supplier/customer is located, and establish a network relationship of SMSEs-major suppliers/customer provinces. The provincial area is used as a space unit, and the local cluster network of SMSEs is constructed through SMSEs-where the enterprise is located by two-mode network. Taking the provincial area as the basic space unit, judge the first-level adjacent provinces where the SMSEs are located, as long as the two provinces are adjacent to each other, the establishment of a small and medium-sized sports enterprise—the first-level province’s two-mode network relationship, thereby building a regional network of SMSEs. Use Ucinet software to transform the symmetrical matrix of the above-mentioned network relationship between the relationship between SMSEs. After the three networks are superimposed, two-value processing is performed to build the overall network of SMSEs, and calculate the center degree and structural hole indicators of the SMSEs in the overall network.
Qualification Comparative Analysis Method (QCA)
As a method based on the theory and Boolean algebra, the QCA method is guided by case analysis, and has the advantages of quantitative analysis and qualitative analysis, it aims to explore a combination of variables that cause a result. We follow the steps of QCA, which are model construction, case selection, condition selection, calibration of condition and result variables, necessary condition analysis, configuration analysis and result interpretation (Results), and robustness test (Pocol et al., 2023). QCA has the following outstanding characteristics: (1) this method adopts a cross-case research method, which can fully examine the heterogeneity of multiple cases and help improve the depth and breadth of research. (2) The QCA method’s requirements for case samples are lower than quantitative analysis, and 10 to 60 cases can be available. Therefore, it has a large advantage when dealing with small samples. (3) The QCA method assumes that the cause of a certain result is diversified, non-linear, and configuration. Compared with traditional regression analysis, it can explain the mechanism generated by a certain result more objectively and deeply. (4) QCA pays attention to the sufficient conditions and necessary conditions of a certain result, and analyzes the effects of the cause combination on the results, but the regression analysis is based on the independent concept of independent variables and is easily affected by multiple common linear negative effects. The difference of condition variables in this study is continuous in different cases, and fsQCA is suitable for cases that are not limited to 0 or 1, so fsQCA is used.
Variable Measurement
Classification Variables of Business Environment
The business environment affects the entire activities of SMEs, such as market access, production and operation, so it will inevitably affect the financing activities of SMSEs. The data of the study comes from the soft environment, infrastructure, social services, and market volume of the “2020 China Business Environment Report” released by the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the 21st Century Economic Research Institute (Table 1). According to the average environment of each environment of the city where the sample sports enterprise is located in 2020, the study divides each environment with high value and low value groups (Cui et al., 2022) and focuses on the impact of network embedding and financing capability on the performance of SMSEs in the four environments.
City Business Environment Evaluation System.
Note. Data from “2020 China Business Environment Report.”
Result Variable
Enterprise Performance. Small and medium-sized sports enterprise performance (EP) is the key to ensuring its continuous operation and growth. The study uses financial performance to measure the performance of SMSEs in 2020, and its measurement index uses Rate of Return on Total Assets (ROA) (Qi, 2021). ROA has strong objectivity and accuracy, which can objectively reflect the actual effects and profitability of corporate capital caused by corporate funds and profit changes and has the characteristics of the same steps as the changes in important assets of the enterprise so that it can reflect the changes of corporate performance in a timely manner (Lin, 2017).
Condition Variables
Enterprise Characteristics
(1) Enterprise Size (SIZE). Due to the consideration of possible heterogeneity, the size of the enterprise is also included in condition variables. The study uses the number of employees as the measurement variable of enterprise size (Table 2). (2) Enterprise Activity Type (SS). Combined with the classification methods of the “Classification of the National Economic Industry” (GB/T 4754-2017) and “Sports Industry Statistics Classification (2019),” according to the characteristics of corporate activities, 35 SMSEs screened in 2020 were divided into 16 sports manufacturing enterprises (Assignment is 0) and 19 sports service enterprises (Assignment is 1).
Variable, Symbol, and Definition.
Network Embedding
(1) Degree of Center (DC). The central degree examines the importance of actors in the network, and is a variable that measures the degree of corporate hub and resource acquisition. In the index of measuring centrality, the degree of center measures the number of other enterprises that are directly connected to the enterprise in the network. The larger the value, the more the enterprise is closer to the center of the network. The study adopts the Degree of Center to measure the centrality of the central sports enterprise (Luo et al., 2016). (2) Structure Hole (SH). SH reflects the capability of enterprises to obtain heterogeneity information and control information transmission. The study uses the difference between 1 and network constraint index to measure (Qian et al., 2010).
Financing Capability (FA)
FA is the ability to raise funds in the right time based on its own profitability and development strategy combining the supply status of internal and external funds. The study uses the difference between the average asset-liability ratio of the sports industry and the asset-liability ratio of SMSEs to reflect its financing capability. The greater its value, the stronger the company’s financing capability (Hu & Hong, 2021).
Condition Calibration and Necessary Condition Analysis
The direct calibration method is used to calibrate the variable calibration as a fuzzy set. Based on existing research experience, the study describes 75%, 50%, and 25% of the case samples data as the full membership, crossover, and full nonmembership (Table 3). Due to space limitations, only the calibration results of the soft environment are displayed, and similar results of other dimensions are no longer displayed.
Low/High Soft Environmental Situation Variable Descriptive Statistics and Calibration Critical Value.
Note. The data are from CSMAR database, annual reports of enterprises, “Business Environment Report of 296 cities in China in 2020” and so on. M is the mean value of soft environment in different groups of cities, and N is the sample size of each group.
Before the configuration analysis, it is necessary to analyze the interactive relationship between the network embedding and financing capability of SMSEs under each dimension of the business environment. The study uses high-value performance of SMSE as the result variables to do single factors for the necessary conditional analysis (Table 4). Due to space limitations, only the calibration results of the soft environment are displayed, and similar results of other dimensions are no longer displayed. The results show that the consistency of SMSEs in the network embedding and financing capability and its negative variables in each dimension does not exceed 0.9, indicating that each condition variable is a subset of the company’s high-value performance result variables, and each condition variable is not a necessary conditions for enterprises to obtain high-value performance.
High Performance Necessary Condition Analysis Under the Low/High Soft Environmental Situation.
Results
We used the fsQCA software. The case sample frequency threshold is set to 1, and the consistency threshold is set to 0.75 (Zhang & Du, 2019), select the standard analysis option that can generate intermediate solution. Some studies have confirmed the important role of corporate financing capability in obtaining the most basic elements for corporate growth, but they have not formed a consensus on the impact of network embedding, corporate size and industry heterogeneity on performance. Therefore, the variables of Enterprise Size, Enterprise Activity Type, Degree of Center, and Structure Hole are selected as “existence or absence,” and the condition variable of Financing Capability is selected as “existence” in the qualitative implication window that guides the obtaining of intermediate solutions, thus three solutions are obtained.
Take soft environment situation as an example, through fuzzy set analysis, two configurations that help enterprises to achieve high level performance have been formed in low soft environment (the consistency of the overall solution is 0.902564, and the coverage of the overall solution is 0.47826), and one configuration that helps enterprises to achieve high level performance has been obtained in high soft environment (the consistency of the overall solution is 0.895833, and the coverage of the overall solution is 0.15608). The consistency level of the overall solution and the single solution are higher than 0.75, and the three configurations can be considered as a combination of sufficient conditions for SMEs to achieve high performance in a low/high soft environment (Table 5).
Configuration Path of Performance Improvement of SMSEs in Business Environment.
Note. The L prefix is a low-group identifier. In the type, S means strong, Sub means weak, W means weak. In the configuration path, the bold condition is the core condition and the non-coarse condition is the auxiliary condition. One of the degree centrality and structural holes as the core condition is considered important; conditions that may or may not occur are not graded.
Soft Environment Heterogeneous Context
Low Soft Environment Situation: Strong Network Embedding—Strong Financing Capability Growth Path. LRHJ1: ~SIZE *DC*SH *FA
In the low soft environment, the existence of rich structural holes and strong financing capability plays a core role in achieving high performance for small-scale sports enterprises, while the existence of degree centrality plays a supporting role. The original coverage of this configuration is 0.365489, the unique coverage is 0.33288, and the consistency is 0.876221. The network embeddedness and financing capability are the reasons for the high performance of small-scale sports enterprises in the low soft environment. The typical sports enterprises in this state include Jianhua Zhongxing (Soft Environment = 0.0987) and NEOTV (Soft Environment = 0.354). There are not many investment opportunities for the two enterprises from the urban soft environment endowment, but the two enterprises have higher network embeddedness and financing capability. In the past 2 years, Jianhua Zhongxing has borrowed about 10.59 million yuan from local banks through mortgage, guarantee, and credit loans, while NEOTV has obtained 2 million yuan from local banks through short-term loans.
Low Soft Environment Situation: Strong Financing Capability Growth Path. LRHJ2: SIZE *~SS*~DC*~SH*FA
In the context of low-soft environment, the existence of larger scale and strong financing capability plays a central role in obtaining high performance for sports manufacturing enterprises. LRHJ2 shows that large-scale sports manufacturing enterprises in low-soft environment mainly obtain high corporate performance by improving financing capability. The typical sports enterprise in this state is Runyuan Outdoor. The soft environment index of Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province is 0.1614, which is only higher than Jining City, Jiaozuo City, and Yuncheng City. Therefore, in terms of resource-based empowerment, Runyuan Outdoor has few investment opportunities from the urban soft environment endowment. In the situation where network embedding is not deep, it mainly achieves high performance through strong financing capability. In 2020, Runyuan Outdoor can raise 6 million yuan from local banks through mortgage and guarantee.
High Soft Environment Situation: Weak Network Embedding—Business Environment Enabling Growth Path. RHJ3: ~SIZE*~SS*~DC*~SH
The network embedding of small-scale sports manufacturing enterprises in the context of high-soft environment is not the reason for driving enterprises to achieve high performance. RHJ3 shows that the high soft environment city endowment can make up for the lack of enterprise network embeddedness and ease the requirements of enterprise financing capability. The typical sports enterprise in this state is Jucai Technology. The soft environment index of the registered city of Jucai Technology is 0.4875. From the perspective of resource endowment, the soft environment endowment of the city can win more opportunities for its financing. In the context of low financing capability, Jucai Technology can still obtain a total of about 10.86 million short-term bank loans. The urban business environment is particularly important for them. Firstly, SMEs with high soft environment are relatively complete and convenient for their government-enterprise and silver collaborative mechanisms and financial approval procedures, so they can get financial support in time. Secondly, in areas high soft environment, the urban financial rule of law system is also more complete. The latter can protect the legal interests of both parties to the loan and alleviate the problem of limited capability to repay financial institutions. Therefore, it can protect the innovative results of SMEs, and stimulate their innovative business vitality. Thus, the high soft environment can alleviate the dilemma of lacking of network embedding.
Social Service Heterogeneous Context
Low Social Service Situation: Strong Financing Capability Growth Path. LSHFW1: ~SIZE*~SS *~DC*~SH*FA
The financing capability of small-scale sports manufacturing enterprises in the context of low social services is the reason for driving enterprises to achieve high performance, and network embedding is not a relevant conditional variable. LSHFW1 means that in the context of low social service, the network embeddedness of small-scale sports manufacturing enterprises is insufficient, and strong financing capability becomes the main advantage for them to obtain high performance. Typical sports enterprises in this state include Runyuan Outdoor. The social service index of Runyuan outdoor registered city is 0.1564.It is difficult to obtain external investment opportunities due to urban social service environment endowments such as financing, science and technology, medical care, pension, education, talents, and R & D services, but its financing capability is higher than that of other small and medium-sized enterprises.
Low Social Service Situation: Sub-Network Embedding-Strong Financing Capability Growth Path. LSHFW2: ~SIZE*~SS *DC*SH*FA
The financing capability and network embedding of small-scale sports manufacturing enterprises in the context of low social services are the reasons for driving enterprises to achieve high performance. LSHFW2 means that small-scale sports manufacturing enterprises with strong financing capability and high network embedding in low social service context can achieve high performance. The typical sports enterprises in this state are Kanglai shares and Jianhua Zhongxing. The social service indexes of Kanglai shares and Jianhua Zhongxing registered cities are 0.1779 and 0.1728 respectively. There are not many external investment opportunities available from urban social service endowments, and strong network embeddedness and financing capability have become an important reason for their high performance. Between 2020 and the end of 2021, Kanglai shares received a loan of 33.6 million yuan through local banks.
High Social Service Situation: Weak Network Embedding-Business Environment Empowerment Growth Path. SHFW3: SIZE*~SS *~DC*~SH
SHFW3 points out that large-scale conditions in high social service situations play a central role in obtaining high performance for sports manufacturing enterprises. SHFW3 means that larger enterprise scale in the context of high social services is an important condition for sports manufacturing enterprises to achieve high performance. The typical sports enterprises in this state are Jucai Technology and Konbit. The social service indexes of Jucai Technology and Konbit registered cities are 0.518 and 0.7363, respectively. There are more external investment opportunities from the endowment of urban social services, which explains to some extent the compensation effect of urban social services on the weak network embeddedness of SMSEs. Under the condition of low network embeddedness, Jucai Technology and Konbit, which are located in high social service endowment, can obtain financing more than 10 million yuan from local banks. A good social service environment can provide diversified financial support for the innovative projects of SMEs. It also creates an environment that can identify and search information for financial loan institutions. At the same time, it establishes a smooth financial activity platform for both borrowing parties, which can maximize the financing capability and alleviate the network embedding dilemma for SMEs.
High Social Service situation: Sub-Network Embedding—Strong Financing Capability Growth Path. SHFW4: ~SIZE*SS*DC*SH*FA
SHFW4 shows that strong financing capability plays a central role for small-scale sports manufacturing enterprises to obtain high performance, and network embedding plays an auxiliary role. SHFW4 shows that in the context of high social service, small-scale sports manufacturing enterprises with strong financing capability and high network embedding can achieve high performance. Typical sports enterprises in this state have Aiku Sports. The social service index of the registered city of Aiku Sports is 0.7363, and there are more investment opportunities from the urban social service endowment. Compared with SHFW3, this path reflects the positive effect of network embedding on the performance improvement of sports enterprises.
Market Aggregate Heterogeneous Context
Low Market Aggregate Situation: Strong Enterprise Network Embedding Growth Path. LSCZL1: SIZE*~SS*DC *SH
The network embeddedness of large-scale sports manufacturing enterprises in the context of low market volume is the reason for driving enterprises to achieve high performance, and the effect of financing capability on high performance is not necessary. LSCZL1 means that the network embedding of larger sports manufacturing enterprises in the context of low market volume has become the main advantage for them to achieve high performance. Typical sports enterprises in this state include Sanlida, Baomei Outdoor, Fushide, and Kanglai shares. The market aggregate indexes of the above-mentioned registered cities are 0.0735, 0.3934, 0.1109, and 0.2153, respectively. There are not many investment opportunities from the market aggregate endowment of cities, but their network embedding advantages are obvious. The top five customers of Sanlida and Fushide are foreign enterprises, and the proportion of Fushide and Kanglai’s products sold abroad is about 61% and 30%, respectively. In addition to high direct and indirect ties with domestic sports enterprises, the above enterprises also have a broad overseas market. Although LSCZL1 has high coverage and explanatory power, only about 4.1% high-performance cases of SMSEs can be explained through this combination path.
Low Market Aggregate Situation: Strong Network Embedding—Sub Financing Capability Growth Path. LSCZL2: ~SS*DC *SH*FA
The existence of network embeddedness and financing capability of sports manufacturing enterprises in the context of low market aggregate is the reason that drives enterprises to achieve high performance. LSCZL2 means that sports manufacturing enterprises with high network embeddedness and strong financing capability can achieve high performance in the context of low market aggregate. The typical sports enterprises in this state are Sanlida, Weiteng Sports, Fushide, Jianhua Zhongxing, and Kanglai shares. The market aggregate index of the above-mentioned enterprises’ registered cities is 0.1693. There are not many investment opportunities available from the total market endowment of the city, but the former has strong network embeddedness and certain financing capability, and has the possibility of obtaining financing through supply chain channels. Weiteng Sports and Jianhua Zhongxing have a broad overseas market. In 2020, Weiteng Sports’ export revenue accounted for 81.74 % of its operating income. Compared with LSCZL2, LSCZL1 explains the alternative relationship between the scale advantage and financing capability of SMSEs to a certain extent.
Low Market Aggregate Situation: Strong Financing Capability Growth Path. LSCZL3: ~SIZE*~SS *~DC*~SH*FA
The strong financing capability of small-scale sports manufacturing enterprises in the context of low market volume is the reason for driving enterprises to achieve high performance. LSCZL3 means that small-scale sports manufacturing enterprises with financing capability in the context of low market aggregate can achieve high performance. The typical sports enterprise in this state is Runyuan Outdoor. The total market index of Runyuan outdoor registered city is 0.1465. From the total endowment of urban market, there are not many investment opportunities for Runyuan outdoor. This path highlights the importance of financing capability to small-scale sports manufacturing enterprises with weak consumer market endowment and insufficient network embeddedness.
High Market Aggregate situation: Weak Network Embedding—Business Environment Empowerment Growth Path. SCZL4: ~SIZE*~SS *~DC*~SH
SCZL4 pointed out that in the context of high market volume, the network embedding of small-scale sports manufacturing enterprises is not the reason for driving enterprises to achieve high performance. SCZL4 means that regardless of the financing capability of enterprises, the smaller sports manufacturing industry with insufficient network embedding may achieve high performance with a good financing environment such as regional market volume. Typical sports enterprises in this state have Jucai Technology. The market aggregate index of registered cities of Jucai Technology is 0.5603, and there are more investment opportunities from the market aggregate endowment of cities. Compared with LSCZL3, SCZL4 illustrates the alternative relationship between market and financing capability to a certain extent, that is, the endowment of local sports consumption market and the financing capability of SMSEs are complementary.
High Market Aggregate situation: Strong Financing Capability Growth Path. SCZL5: ~SS *~DC*~SH*FA
The existence of strong financing capability plays a central role in obtaining high performance for sports manufacturing enterprises. SCZL5 shows that in the context of high market aggregate, sports service enterprises with insufficient network embeddedness and strong financing capability can achieve high performance. The typical sports enterprise in this state is Konbit. The market aggregate index of Konbit’s registered cities is 0.9054, and there are more investment opportunities from the urban market aggregate endowment. This path can explain less than 11% of small and medium-sized sports enterprise case with low coverage, only about 5.2% high-performance cases of small and medium-sized sports enterprise have and can only be explained by this combination path.
High Market Aggregate Situation: Strong Network Embedding Growth Path. SCZL6: ~SIZE *SS*DC*SH
The existence of rich structural holes plays a central role in obtaining high performance for small-scale sports service enterprises, and degree centrality plays an auxiliary role. SCZL6 shows that small-scale sports service firms with high network embeddedness can achieve high performance in the context of high market volume, and the effect of financing capability on high performance is not necessary. The typical sports enterprises in this state are Tongfang Health, China Sports Shares, and New Competition Point. The market aggregate index of the above-mentioned enterprises’ registered city is 0.9054, and there are more investment opportunities from the urban market aggregate endowment. This path has a high coverage and can explain nearly 40% of the cases of SMSEs. At the same time, nearly 40% high-performance cases of SMSEs have and can only be explained through this combination path, indicating that the combination of conditions is sufficient and necessary, and can be used as a necessary and sufficient condition for small-scale sports service enterprises to achieve high performance. From his path, we can get important enlightenment, that is, small-scale sports enterprises especially need to improve their capability to control heterogeneous resources in an urban environment with rich market endowments.
Robustness Test
According to the existing research, in the robustness test of the results, whether by changing the calibration strategy (changing the quantile) or adjusting the consistency threshold (from 0.75 to 0.78), the above configuration results did not change significantly, which proved the robustness of the research results. Due to space limitations, the robustness results are no longer listed.
Conclusions and Implications
Conclusions
Under the framework of business environment-network embedding-financing capability-enterprise performance, this paper identifies the differentiated growth path of SMSEs under the heterogeneity of business environment through fsQCA method. The results show that there are 13 configuration paths for the performance improvement of SMSEs in the context of heterogeneous business environment, which are divided into six types driving modes of network embedding and financing capability configuration. In the low urban business environment, at least one aspect of network embeddedness or financing capability is particularly prominent. In the context of high business environment, there is a situation where no matter how the level of corporate financing capability is, the characteristics of network embeddedness are not obvious. It reflects that a good urban business environment not only plays an important role in reducing the costs of information search and transaction, but also can temporarily alleviate the pressure on SMSEs to cultivate their own financing capability. It can be seen that the construction of urban business environment is necessary for the growth of SMSEs. Different types of network embeddedness and financing capability configuration driving modes provide an important reference for the growth strategies that SMSEs can adopt in different business environment situations. The study focuses on the heterogeneity of urban business environment, which undoubtedly refines the research on the impact of network embedding or financing ability on the performance of small and medium-sized sports enterprises.
Implications
The research has important theoretical and practical significance in guiding enterprises to respond to the current development situation of sports industry and helping small and medium-sized sports enterprises to enhance their competitiveness and healthy growth. As the saying goes, “Planting sycamore trees and attracting phoenixes,” from the perspective of regional economy and network embedding, the superior business environment is a strategic way for the region to attract enterprise investment, form resource agglomeration effects such as material flow, information flow, capital flow, knowledge flow and talent flow, and enhance the competitiveness of regional networks and network member enterprises and even regional industries. This key development logic is not only the logical starting point for all regions to promote and optimize the business environment, but also the core driving force to guide SMEs to use the business environment to improve performance. The antecedent variables that affect the performance of SMEs are not single social network resources, but a combination of urban business environment, financial resources and enterprise capability.
Managerial Contributions
From the perspective of factor combination, in the actual development process, (1) on the one hand, the government should provide sufficient public services for the innovative business activities of SMSEs, and create a good market environment to help enterprises alleviate the resource difficulties faced by innovation and entrepreneurship and the initial stage, promote the resource agglomeration of SMSEs and the cooperative innovation with scientific research institutions, universities, other enterprises and other subjects. (2) On the other hand, in the same resource environment, the gap between the network and financing capability of enterprises is also the reason for the different performance levels. If small and medium-sized enterprises want to occupy superior resources in regions and industries with the same environment, they must be good at integrating, absorbing’ and utilizing various types of network and environmental resources by cultivating their own capabilities, so as to realize the sharing and flow of resources within the enterprise and among multiple subjects. Therefore, SMSEs should focus on identifying their own network and enhance the financing capability, fully access to external resources and efficiently applied to business innovation and entrepreneurship activities to improve corporate performance and overall competitiveness.
Footnotes
Author Contributions
Wang Chenxi: Writing—original draft, Formal analysis, Data curation. Li Haijie: Writing—review & editing.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Scientific Research Project of Higher Education Institutions in Anhui Province “New Stage, New Concept and New Pattern: Logic and Realization Path of High-quality Development of Anhui Sport Industry” (Grant No. 2022AH051358).
