Impact of Globalization on Jalandhar’s Sports Goods Export: Sustainability Challenges and Future Prospects

The Jalandhar district in Punjab is one of India’s noted manufacturing clusters for the sports goods industry due to its historical significance in international trade. Recently, the industry has experienced new windows of opportunity and challenge due to globalization, sustainability, and changing government policies. This study examines how the three main factors of globalization, sustainability, and government policies impact the export business of the sports goods SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in Jalandhar. The opening up of new markets due to globalization is often accompanied by tough competition from international producers, in particular, low-cost producers from China and Pakistan. While providing a gateway to new markets, globalization also brings stringent standards for compliance with environmental and ethical production norms. These standards, set by global players, create additional barriers for the region’s traditional and semi-formal enterprises. The study’s main goal was to analyze the impact of globalization on export growth, evaluate the extent of sustainability adoption, and assess the perceived effectiveness of government support frameworks. In this regard, a questionnaire with 30 items was administered to a sample of 300 manufacturers from production clusters such as Football Chowk, Basti Sheikh, Leather Complex, and Nakodar Road. The analysis of the data was conducted through frequency distribution, cross-tabulation, Pearson Chi-square, and ANOVA tests utilizing SPSS and Microsoft Excel. The sample had a wide industry representation ranging from exporters, production managers to unit owners. From the descriptive analysis, we found that while a large segment of respondents believed that globalization has fostered new opportunities, this was not the case for everyone. Numerous small manufacturers still face challenges with regard to pricing flexibility, compliance, and global visibility. Even with programs like “Make in India” and