Digital "Empowerment" and Value Co-creation Mechanism of Sports Event IP from the Perspective of Rural Revitalization: A Qualitative Study Based on Zhaoqing's Rural Sports

Abstract

Against the macro backdrop of the comprehensive promotion of the Rural Revitalization strategy, rural sports events are leaping from marginal community activities to a key arena for reshaping rural landscapes and activating endogenous dynamics. Phenomenon-level events, represented by the "Village Super League," highlight the immense potential for the IP-ization of rural sports. However, existing research has largely focused on the "enabling" effect of digital technology (i.e., technological instrumentalism) or the commercial "operation" path of IP, overlooking the profound reconstruction of rural social power structures and value creation logic by digital technology. Grounded in the contemporary perspective of Rural Revitalization, this paper takes Zhaoqing's rural sports (especially its deep traditions of dragon boat racing, martial arts, etc.) as the qualitative research field. It innovatively proposes a "Digital Empowerment" theoretical framework, distinguishing it from traditional "digital enabling." "Empowerment" refers not only to the improvement of technical efficiency but, more importantly, to the substantive acquisition of discourse power, organizational power, economic power, and cultural interpretation power by rural subjects (villagers). The study argues that digital empowerment is the prerequisite and foundation for realizing the value co-creation of rural sports event IP; "enabling" without "empowerment" easily leads to "digital alienation" and "value deprivation." This paper deeply discerns the four-fold dimensions of digital empowerment (discourse, organization, economy, and culture) and constructs a mechanism model for the value co-creation of rural sports IP based on this. This mechanism includes four key links: "subject activation - resource identification - scene co-creation - value sharing." It clarifies how, under digital empowerment, pluralistic subjects—such as villagers, local governments, digital platforms, market capital, and local elites—shift from traditional "value chain" relationships to new "value network" relationships. The study finds that the practice of Zhaoqing's rural sports shows that only when digital technology truly "empowers the people," making villagers the true protagonists of the IP, can the cultural authenticity and economic sustainability of the IP be unified, and value co-creation be achieved. This research aims to provide a new theoretical perspective and practical path for the non-quantitative, sustainable development of rural sports IP, in order to avoid the "traffic trap" and "capital suspension," and to truly realize the comprehensive revitalization of rural subjects.