Supply Creation or Demand Pull? Spatio-Temporal Differentiation and Evolution Path of China’s Sports Consumption Potential

Supply Creation or Demand Pull? Spatio-Temporal Differentiation and Evolution Path of China’s Sports Consumption Potential | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Supply Creation or Demand Pull? Spatio-Temporal Differentiation and Evolution Path of China’s Sports Consumption Potential Laixi Liu, Rui Du This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9228560/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 7 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Expanding and improving sports consumption is used as a lever to boost domestic demand, accelerate the shift from latent to realized demand, upgrade consumption structure, and provide endogenous growth for high-quality economic development. Drawing on supply-security theory and demand-release hypotheses, this study constructs a supply–demand evaluation framework and quantifies residents’ sports consumption potential using provincial panel data from 2008 to 2023. Findings indicate that the potential for sports consumption in China grows over time, with a decreasing gradient from East to Central to West to Northeast. Regional disparities reveal a widening overall inequality, with the strongest within-region divergence in the East, and a clear spatial polarization between the East and Central regions. The Central region shows distinctive α-convergence and non-significant absolute β-convergence; conditional β-convergence is significant in all regions. Spatial clustering is significant but weakening over time. The study clarifies mechanisms linking sports consumption potential to demand and offers implications for the long-term expansion of domestic demand. Social science/Development studies Business and commerce/Economics Social science/Economics Earth and environmental sciences/Environmental social sciences Scientific community and society/Geography Social science/Geography Sports Consumption Kernel Density Estimation Convergence Analysis Spatial Agglomeration Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files 1.xlsx 2.xlsx Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewers agreed at journal 15 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 10 Apr, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 08 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 08 Apr, 2026 Editor invited by journal 07 Apr, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 06 Apr, 2026 First submitted to journal 06 Apr, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. 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