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The purpose of this paper is to examine the key factors that affect the formulation of regional strategies for developing and advancing the sport industry in China.

Guided by the comparative advantage theory, qualitative and quantitative research procedures were carried out to analyze the variables that were deemed necessary for the development of regional advantages.

The findings of this study indicated the importance and relevance of understanding these comparative advantage factors when developing regional strategies for sport development in China or other countries with a developing economy.

This study was largely exploratory in nature, meaning that future confirmatory studies are necessary in order to solidify the results and to encompass the wide-ranging diversity of the total sport industry.

The study provided practical implications for other countries to address the needs to discern among varying sectors of the sport industry and prioritize factors that are specific to regions, communities, and local environments in the strategic planning process.

The findings of this study highlighted the importance and relevance of four comparative advantage factors and the varying sectors of the sport industry variables in the region.

With the rapid economic development, China has been increasingly paying special attention to its sports and health industries. In October 2014, the State Council raised the goal to upscale the sports industry to the net worth of 5 trillion yuan by 2025. To gain further insights into the current development of tennis in China, especially the development of Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) tennis competitions, an interview with the director of Wuhan Opening Fabrice Chouquet and Mr Guoqing Yi of Wuahan Sport Investment Inc. was conducted. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

To gain further insights into the current development of tennis in China, especially the development of WTA tennis competitions, an interview with the director of Wuhan Opening Fabrice Chouquet and Mr Guoqing Yi of Wuahan Sport Investment Inc. was conducted.

The interview comprised a series of topics including motivators of tennis industries in China, the strategic position of China for WTA development, WTA choice of hosting city, effects of WTA competition events toward the hosting city, and the operation of WTA tennis competitions. Integrating the aforementioned topics with Wuhan Tennis Open, the interviewees also provided suggestions toward the future development of tennis industry in China.

This study has several limitations that are of concern to researchers in the future. First, the interviewees of this research came from Wuhan Tennis Open. Though Mr Fabrice used to be the managing director of WTA in Asia, he only knows about women tennis in China, and his viewpoints have their own limitation. Therefore, the interviewee in the future has to be the person who could hold the opinion on tennis development in China at the macro scale. Second, the questions in the interview have a wide scale, but lack depth and penetration. For instance, the interview only relates to the motive of tennis development but does not go deeply into the relation between the above two aspects. Moreover, it mentions the problems related to the tennis development. It only concentrates on the tennis tournaments but does not discuss the tennis culture and the industry. These questions need to be considered when the authors research on the development of tennis in China in the future.

Through the analysis on WTA and tennis in China, the authors can understand the development of sports in China and the Chinese sports industry in recent years.

The strategy for sport in Wales, Climbing Higher, establishes some very ambitious targets for raising the levels of sport and physical activity participation over the next 20 years. To support its strategy, the Welsh Assembly Government has promised an additional 12,000 jobs within the sport and recreation sector. Research conducted with employers highlights that many sports degree programmes are not “fit for purpose” and are not fully preparing graduates for work within the industry. This paper considers how the University of Glamorgan, in liaison with key industry partners, has designed a sports development degree “fit” for the industry and which meets the expectations of Climbing Higher. The success of the degree programme relies upon the formation of multi‐agency partnerships at a local and regional level. Experiential learning underpins the degree with students required to reflect upon the challenges that they face in getting participants more active; the community placements embedded within modules allow students to experience the complexities of working within the sports development sector. It is a unique and holistic approach, supported by key local and national partners and is fundamental in supporting the objectives set by the Welsh Assembly Government.

Growth of China’s sport industry has brought tremendous opportunities to sport and non-sport organizations domestically and globally; nonetheless, the enlargement has also raised many challenges. To a great extent, China has chartered into unprecedented new sport business territories. Because of social, cultural, historical, and governmental differences, many theories and knowledge, professional experiences, best practices, and lessons learned in Western countries may or may not be directly applicable to the diverse setting(s) in China. Until now, only limited empirical evidence is available to address these challenges. Thus, formulating a special issue in the International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship to examine contemporary subject matters and concerns would be significantly meaningful to help understand, stimulate, and improve sport business operations in China, provide guidance to transnational organizations for doing sport-related business in China, offer constructive suggestions for Chinese corporations going global, and ultimately build up theories and best practices to address unique perspectives of China’s sport industry. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper is conceptual and presents a review of literature.

In addition to this leading paper, there are a total of eight manuscripts selected for this special issue inquiring on contemporary matters and development of China’s sport industry, including four short articles that were formulated based on qualitative research information derived from case studies and interviews and four full-length articles that adopted a quantitative research protocol or a mixed research design involving both qualitative and quantitative information.

While it is impossible to capture all contemporary topics in the development of China’s sport industry within one journal issue, articles selected in this special issue of the International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship have provided useful highlights into some of the critical issues faced by the industry and research directions by academicians. It is sincerely expected that studies in this special issue would help inspire more scholarly inquires and ultimately improve the continued formulation and advancement of a strong sport industry in China.

While it is impossible to capture all contemporary topics in the development of China’s sport industry within one journal issue, articles selected in this special issue of the International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship have provided useful highlights into some of the critical issues faced by the industry and research directions by academicians. It is sincerely expected that studies in this special issue would help inspire more scholarly inquires and ultimately improve the continued formulation and advancement of a strong sport industry in China.

While it is impossible to capture all contemporary topics in the development of China’s sport industry within one journal issue, articles selected in this special issue of the International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship have provided useful highlights into some of the critical issues faced by the industry and research directions by academicians. It is sincerely expected that studies in this special issue would help inspire more scholarly inquires and ultimately improve the continued formulation and advancement of a strong sport industry in China.

While it is impossible to capture all contemporary topics in the development of China’s sport industry within one journal issue, articles selected in this special issue of the International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship have provided useful highlights into some of the critical issues faced by the industry and research directions by academicians. It is sincerely expected that studies in this special issue would help inspire more scholarly inquires and ultimately improve the continued formulation and advancement of a strong sport industry in China.

The purpose of this essay is to provide a better understanding of Africa's sport industry and demonstrate how the industry can be transformed.

To do so, the authors rely on their varied experiences within Africa's sport ecosystem. This includes reflections based on consuming sport in Africa, studying the sport business landscape, and first-hand experiences working inside African sport organizations.

The authors find that systemic challenges restrict the growth of Africa's sport industry; however, they maintain there are also reasons to be optimistic about the prospects of the industry.

While not an exhaustive list, the authors' commentary defines various research opportunities for scholars interested in both better understanding and improving Africa's sport industry.

The stated challenges and proposed strategies have the potential to inform decision-makers within Africa's sport ecosystem.

Crucial to the continued growth and development of the continent, the authors propose that investments in sport can drive broader economic and social development beyond sport.

The authors address the dearth of academic literature on Africa's sport industry, while also inviting more researchers to undertake research agendas that enhance Africa.