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

ABSTRACTAlthough 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.KEYWORDS: International alliance networknetwork positionsstandard-setting influencegovernment-market relations Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Correction StatementThis article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.Notes1 In this study, standard stakeholders refer to specialized technical committee members who directly affect whether a technological proposal can pass review. According to the Measures for the Administration of National Professional Standardization Technical Committees, the specialized technical committee is responsible for reviewing and managing technological standards in a technical field. Only when more than a certain number of committee members propose a solution will the proposal be approved as an official national standard. Committee members must comprise stakeholders such as producers, research institutions, and consumers. No more than half of the total number of stakeholders can be of any one type.2 Garud, Jain, and Kumaraswamy (Citation2002) note that technological standards have a structuration property that both enables and constrains adopters. Specifically, they enable adopters to develop or use different parts of a technological system, but simultaneously constrain adopters’ evolution in a certain direction. Thus, to prevent becoming locked into a disadvantageous trajectory, stakeholders are typically cautious when deciding whether to support and adopt a technological standard. Moreover, core purpose for firms to promote their technological proposals as common standards is to gain private benefits, such as locking out competitors and dominating the market (Leiponen Citation2008), which increases stakeholders’ concerns.Additional informationFundingThis work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant [number 71932005, 72002070]; the National Social Science Fund of China under grant [number 23BGL051]; and Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province under grant [number 2020JJ3017, 2020JJ5114].Notes on contributorsYao WangYao Wang is currently a PhD candidate at the Business School of Hunan University in China. Her research area is technological innovation management and knowledge management.Deming ZengProf. Deming Zeng received his PhD from University of Twente in 1998. He is currently a Professor at the Business School of Hunan University. His main research interests include technological innovation management and knowledge management.Jian LiDr. Jian Li received his PhD from Queen Mary University of London in 2014. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Business School of Hunan University. His research interests focus on open innovation and knowledge network.Jinyan WenDr. Jinyan Wen received her PhD from Hunan University in 2019. She is currently a Lecturer at the Hunan University of Technology and Business. Her research interests focus on technological innovation management and knowledge management.