Ownership domination in standardization: Evidence from Chinese industrial firms

• Overall, foreign firms are less likely to draft Chinese standards than domestic firms.
• No significant distinctions among domestic ownerships exist in formulating standards.
• The foreign are more dominated in drafting trade and voluntary high-tech standards.
• No ownership domination exists in national and compulsory high-tech standards.
• China׳s standards system is more communicative with foreign firms in essential areas.

This paper empirically analyzes how ownership affects firms׳ participation in formulating Chinese national standards and trade standards using a large dataset of Chinese industrial firms. Overall examinations show that foreign enterprises are less likely to participate in drafting standards than domestic firms, whereas state-owned enterprises do not have significant advantages over domestic firms of other ownerships in formulating standards. Further extending the study to consider industrial heterogeneity, we find that ownership domination of domestic firms over foreign firms is more serious in formulating trade and voluntary high-tech standards, but is not significant in the case of national and compulsory high-tech standards. This implies that China׳s standards system seems to be more market-oriented and more communicative with foreign players in its essential areas.