The Dual-Tournament System in the Tiao-Kuai Matrix Structure: Evolution and Transformation of Local Sports Governance in China from an Incentive Perspective

Local sports departments, through proactive actions, have played a significant role in promoting remarkable achievements in competitive sports, which is one of the notable advantages of the national sports system and governance characteristics. To understand the strategic actions of local sports departments, this study depicts the incentive mechanism of China's local sports governance system, known as the dual-tournament system, based on the institutional arrangement of “tiao” or “line”(championship tournament) and “kuai” or “block”(promotion tournament) within the administrative hierarchy. The emergence, evolution, and implications of the dual-tournament system are closely related to the goals of the country's sports industry, administrative management system, and historical characteristics of different stages. The logic of action in local sports departments is driven by the incentive goal of competition results, leading to corresponding incentive benefits and costs. In the process of building a new system of pooling national resources and strengths under the socialist market economy, the incentive logic of the new dual-tournament system should transition from result-oriented incentives to process-oriented incentives, to adapt to the goal of building a sports power in the new era. This can be achieved through a supply-oriented mindset of node-based incentives to promote integration between competitive sports and other sports sectors, goal-oriented coordination through layered incentives to facilitate integration between sports development and local strategic goals, and an incentive mechanism of emerging development through initiatives that showcase talent through competitions and promote development, thereby realizing a governance path that combines the new system of pooling national resources and strengths with market mechanisms.