Does engagement in international alliances affect a firm’s influence on domestic standard-setting? The moderating role of government–market relations

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although international alliances and standard-setting influence (SSI) are crucial for emerging economy firms to gain competitive advantages, research on their relationship is scarce. To address this gap, we explore the relationships between a firm’s position in an international alliance network and its SSI based on the literature on social networks, international alliances, and standardisation. We conduct an empirical analysis using a sample of 311 Chinese-listed firms from 2005 to 2016 to test hypotheses. Our findings show that: (1) a firm’s position in an international alliance network affects its SSI, and the effect varies with the subnational institutional environment in which the firm is located; (2) a U-shaped relationship exists between firms’ network centrality and SSI, but the relationship between spanning structural holes and SSI is an inverted U-shape; and (3) regional government–market relations weaken these nonlinear relationships. Associated theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.