Author(s): ZHANG, R., YAO, F., GUO, B., NIU, J., LI, X., TSENG, Y., ZHANG, C., Institution: PEKING UNIVERSITY, Country: CHINA, Abstract-ID: 862

Introduction
As a core sector of Chinas sports industry, the sports goods manufacturing industry accounts for over 50% of the total output, with industrial agglomeration being a notable characteristic. This paper focuses on the ecological externality of this phenomenon, aiming to leverage the industrys spatial spillover effects to promote sustainable development in the regions.

Methods
The research subject of this paper is the sports goods manufacturing industry across 30 provinces in China, from 2012 to 2016 and from 2018 to 2019 (data missing for 2017). Provincial-level industrial agglomeration is calculated using Excel 2019, while ecological efficiency is calculated using DEA-SOLVER Pro 5.0 software. Based on the STIRPAT theory, exploring spatial data analysis and spatial regression analysis were conducted using Open GeoDa 1.16 and STATA 15.0 software. The spatial Durbin model was employed to analyze the relationship between sports goods manufacturing industry agglomeration and ecological efficiency. Other explanatory variables include demographic, economic, and technological factors, while control variables encompass industrial structure, urban development, environmental governance, and opening up factors.

Results
(1) The spatial autocorrelation results indicate that ecological efficiency exhibits a "low-low" agglomeration pattern, concentrated in the Northwest China. The sports goods manufacturing industry demonstrates both "high-high" and "low-low" agglomeration patterns, with the "high-high" agglomeration distributions observed in the Southeast China. (2) The panel model results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between the high-level agglomeration areas and regional ecological efficiency. (3) The effect decomposition results of the spatial panel model indicate that the direct and total effects of industrial agglomeration in the sports goods manufacturing industry are significantly positive. Among the explanatory variables, the direct effects of demographic and economic variables are significantly negative, while the spillover and total effects are significantly positive, with technological variables exhibiting the opposite pattern. Within the control variables, the spillover and total effects of industrial structure, environmental governance, and urbanization variables are significantly negative, whereas the opening up variables exhibiting the opposite pattern.

Discussion
Currently, the agglomeration of China’s sports goods manufacturing industry exhibits significant regional disparities and demonstrates a positive trend in ecological externalities within the region, surrounding areas, and nationwide. This trend manifests as an initial increase followed by a decrease in the impact on regional ecological efficiency, resulting from the combined effects of population, economic, technological, and other urban development factors. Future agglomeration expansion should focus on pollution control and environmental protection efforts.