Investment Risk Assessment of Sporting Goods Manufacturing Enterprises in Countries Along the Belt and Road Initiative

With the continuous promotion of the Belt and Road initiative, the sporting goods manufacturing industry, as a key sector of Chinese enterprises’ “going global” strategy, is actively expanding the markets of countries along the Belt and Road. However, there are significant differences in political, economic, and social environments among countries along the Belt and Road, which bring considerable uncertainties to the transnational investment of enterprises. Based on the investment environment of 70 countries along the Belt and Road, this paper constructs a risk evaluation index system including five dimensions: political and legal, economic and financial, socio-cultural, investment environment, and bilateral relations. The Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) method is used to determine weight, Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method is employed to evaluate the investment risks of each country. Furthermore, cluster analysis is used to classify the countries into low, medium, and high-risk levels. Finally, policy recommendations are proposed based on the characteristics of countries with different risk levels, providing decision-making references for sporting goods manufacturing enterprises in selecting suitable countries for investment, enhancing risk prevention capabilities, and improving investment success rates.