Abstract
The Sports and Leisure Characteristic Town (SLCT) has become a reasonable strategy for enhancing the sustainability of new urbanization processes in rural China. Although the Chinese government has issued a series of policies to support the development of SLCTs, limited financial resources are a major obstacle. Thus, public-private partnerships (PPPs) have been increasingly encouraged for establishing SLCT projects. However, the factors that significantly influence private partners’ willingness to participate in SLCT PPP projects remain unclear. The authors of this paper conducted expert interviews and questionnaire surveys concerning the SLCT PPP projects that have been implemented in China, identifying 23 factors that can be grouped into five major components using principal component factor analysis. Multiple linear regression was then performed to evaluate the relationships between factors and private partners’ willingness to participate. The results indicated that the factors that critically influence private partners’ willingness to participate include stakeholder factors, the internal factors of private partners, external environmental risk factors, the supporting measure factors of SLCTs, and the locational factors of SLCTs. This work also offers suggestions for encouraging private partners to participate in SLCT PPP projects. This study can provide a theoretical basis and practical guidance for government and private partners in order to help them implement sustainable SLCT PPP projects.
Highlights
The level of urbanization in China will reach 60% by 2020 and 70% by 2035 [1]
Market demand: During the interviews with the five general managers from the state-owned enterprises that participated in Characteristic Town (CT) private partnerships (PPPs), we found that the green industry, transportation infrastructure, and projects with long-term stable market values were consistent with their investment criteria
The sustainability of new urbanization in China requires the vigorous development of CTs
Summary
The level of urbanization in China will reach 60% by 2020 and 70% by 2035 [1]. China has rapidly become urbanized over the past four decades, its urbanization rate was 59.58% by the end of 2018 [2], which is lower than the average urbanization rate of 80% in most developed countries today [3]. During the process of urbanization in China, some unsustainable issues presented themselves due to dual structure mechanisms such as the tremendously uneven development between urban and rural areas and significant income differences between urban and rural residents [4,5]. The Chinese Government proposed the Rural Revitalization Strategy in 2017 to increase farmers’ incomes and stimulate sustainable rural development relating to economic, cultural, and ecological aspects. The Characteristic Town (CT) is regarded as one of the prominent drivers of urban-rural economic development that will play a key role in achieving sustainable targets in Chinese urbanization, industrialization, and agricultural modernization in the 21st century [6,7]. Chinese CTs are different from traditional small towns [8] because they are defined as an innovation and start-up platform rather than as an industrial park or administrative town. Similar to India, most small towns are administrative towns that are managed by the government [9]
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