Abstract
Standards help firms understand future technological trends, enhance public trust, and reduce market risks, which are crucial to their survival and development. Standard setting is a complex process of coordination among multiple stakeholders. Our study complements standardization research from an ecosystem perspective by examining how innovativeness across the supply chain ecosystem influences firm standard-setting performance (FSSP). We also analyze how firm competitive position (FCP) and industry concentration (IC) moderate these outcomes, using data of listed high-tech manufacturers in China from 2012 to 2022 and employing regression analysis and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results show that both upstream innovativeness (UI) and downstream innovativeness (DI) promote FSSP, while horizontal innovativeness (HI) has an inhibitory effect; FCP and IC strengthen the promoting impact of UI on FSSP and reduce the drawbacks of HI on FSSP. IC weakens the positive impact of DI on FSSP. FsQCA also identifies new pathways: in addition to technology-driven and market-driven configurations, both competitive steady-state and power-dominated configurations can also lead to high standard-setting performance. We conduct a series of robustness tests, including alternative regression models, alternative variable measurements, and fsQCA anchor point settings, which confirmed the research conclusions remain consistent. This study overcomes the limitations of traditional supply chain management's linear analysis of direct transaction relationships, expands the research on supply chain management and standards, and provides practical insights for corporate managers to enhance FSSP.