As a crucial instrument, green finance policy facilitates the transition toward a green and low-carbon regional economic structure, which is essential for realizing the target of “double carbon” and the harmonious coexistence of nature and humans. Therefore, taking the green financial reform and innovation pilot zone as a quasi-natural experiment, we select 270 cities from 2010 to 2021 as research samples and empirically assess the effects of the green finance policy on reducing regional carbon emissions through the double debiased machine learning (DDML) model. This study demonstrates that (1) green finance policy plays a significant role in promoting regional carbon emission reduction, and this conclusion remains valid after a variety of robustness tests; (2) the mechanism of action indicates that green finance policy contributes to regional carbon emission reduction by supporting green technological innovation and promoting the optimization of the industrial structure; (3) the analysis of heterogeneity reveals that green finance policy has a more pronounced effect on carbon emission reduction in the eastern region and in non-resource-based cities than in the central and western regions and in resource-dependent cities; and (4) the pilot policy of “Broadband China”, the pilot policy of information consumption, and the comprehensive experimental zone of big data has a synergistic effect on carbon reduction and emission reduction with green finance policy. The findings of this study not only contribute to deepening the understanding of the effects of the green finance pilot policy on regional carbon emission reduction but also provide policy support for local governments to explore green technology comprehensively, grasp new opportunities for green development, and expand the space for sustainable economic development with the assistance of the green finance pilot policy.

Innovations are the foundation of an enterprise’s sustainable development, which is particularly important for sports firms in an evolving Chinese sport industrial environment. Analyzing publicly-listed sports firms on The New Third Board (NTB) in China, this study examined the influence of corporate financial capability and corporate governance structure on firms’ R&D intensity through a series of multiple regression models. Findings revealed that corporate financial capability is an important determinant of R&D intensity, and corporate governance structure has a small but meaningful effect on R&D intensity. Specifically, for Chinese sports firms, several financial capability indicators, such as return on equity, accounts receivable turnover, assets turnover, and profit growth rate, have positive relationships with R&D intensity; however, other financial capability indicators, such as leverage and cash flow, have negative relationships with R&D intensity. Limited evidence was found to support the notion that corporate governance significantly influences R&D intensity, although sports firms with good governance mechanisms are more likely to increase the positive effects of financial capabilities on R&D intensity while decreasing the negative effects. Discussions were centered on planning and executing R&D activities in sports companies.

Sports is an effective intervention measure for active health. On the basis of data from the 2018–2022 China Family Panel Studies (primarily self-reported or household member-reported data), this research uses baseline regression, mediating effects and moderating effects to explore the impact of sports participation on residents’ physical and mental health. The research revealed the following: (1) Baseline regression: sports participation has a significant positive effect on residents’ physical and mental health; (2) mechanism analysis: sports participation improves residents’ physical and mental health by enhancing social capital; (3) moderating effect: higher household income is conducive to enhancing the positive effect of sport participation on residents’ physical and mental health; (4) heterogeneity analysis: compared with rural residents and middle-aged and young people, sports participation has a stronger promoting effect on the physical and mental health of urban residents and elderly individuals. Compared with the literature, the research findings reveal the multiple health values of sports participation from the novel perspective of active health and provide an empirical basis and theoretical support for the formulation of differentiated health promotion strategies.

In today’s complex and volatile world economic situation, extending the life cycle of sports enterprises and maintaining sustainable growth is a top priority for enterprise development. Under the background of advocating high-quality development, sports enterprises practicing ESG development concept can help realize sustainable growth. This paper empirically examines the impact of ESG performance on the sustainable growth rate of sports enterprises through the panel data of A-share sports listed companies in 2018–2022, and finds that good ESG performance can significantly enhance the sustainable growth rate of sports enterprises, and the enterprise’s R&D investment in biomechanical technology has a certain promotion effect on the relationship between the impact of ESG performance and the sustainable growth rate of sports enterprises by grouping the enterprise group regression according to industry and property rights to further derive the results of heterogeneity analysis. The results found that ESG performance has a significant positive impact on the sustainable growth rate of both sporting goods enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises. Therefore, this paper concludes that sports enterprises should actively practice the ESG development concept to ensure sustainable growth, extend the enterprise life cycle, promote the high-quality development of the sports industry, and form a virtuous cycle of economic development.

The sports industry, an emerging industry with low pollution and low emissions, plays an important role in the sustainable development of human society. Using 489 observations from a panel of 128 sports firms listed on the New Third Board in China from 2015 to 2020, this study investigated the effects of three different innovation-driven policies on the total factor productivity of sports firms and the moderating role of governance structure on this relationship. The results showed that high-tech enterprise tax relief was an important policy tool to promote the total factor productivity of sports enterprises, but the direct effects of government subsidies and pre-tax deduction of R&D expenses were not significant. In addition, governance structure had a positive moderating effect on the relationship between innovation-driven policies and the total factor productivity of sports firms. The positive effect of the pre-tax deduction of R&D expenses policy was more significant for sports firms with larger and more independent boards of directors. This study provides new insight into innovation policy development for the sports industry by showing that corporate governance has a significant impact on the effectiveness of innovation-driven policies. Furthermore, the findings provide practical guidance for both managers and government–industry policymakers in the sports industry.