Standardization Governance and Urban Green Innovation: Evidence from China’s National Pilot Reform

Standardization Governance and Urban Green Innovation: Evidence from China’s National Pilot Reform | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Standardization Governance and Urban Green Innovation: Evidence from China’s National Pilot Reform Han Zhang, Huiying Wang, Xiaoxin Yang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9228926/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Standardization acts as a key driver of governance and production efficiency, playing a crucial role in fostering green innovation. Treating China’s National Standardization Reform Pilot (NSRP) as a quasi-natural experiment, this study investigates this relationship using a staggered difference-in-differences framework on a panel dataset of 278 prefecture-level cities from 2012 to 2022. The empirical results demonstrate that the NSRP exerts a robust positive causal effect on urban green innovation, characterized by an inverted-U dynamic trajectory. Heterogeneity analyses reveal a pronounced non-monotonic size effect: the policy yields substantial innovation dividends for small and medium-sized cities but exhibits a null effect in large cities due to the potential crowding out of endogenous innovation. A moderated mediation model further establishes that the NSRP drives green innovation primarily by optimizing resource allocation efficiency and secondarily by stimulating regional innovation activity. Notably, the strength of intellectual property protection exerts asymmetric moderating effects, dampening the resource-allocation channel while amplifying the innovation-activity channel. This study provides rigorous empirical evidence that standardized governance acts as a critical catalyst for green transformation, offering valuable policy implications for tiered institutional design and optimal factor reallocation in developing economies aiming for sustainable growth. JEL Codes ：O31; Q55; Q58; R11 Urban Studies City Management and Urban Policy Environmental Economics Standardization Governance Urban Green Innovation National Standardization Reform Pilot Institutional Tool Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9228926","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":612371848,"identity":"cc2ee138-ab50-419e-8c60-eea85143417b","order_by":0,"name":"Han Zhang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABAElEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACCSBmbGBgYGNvPvjw4z8bHn7+BiK18PEcSzaWYEuTkZxxgEgtchI5ZhI8bIdtDBoS8OuQn9387OHXHXZ5bBJpyQYSPOd5DBgOMH74mINbC+OcY+bGsmeSi9l4Hh98UCBxm8ecuYFZcuY23FqYJRLMpCXbmBPb2EG2GNzmsWw4wMbMi0cLm0T6N6CW+sQ2BpBfEs7xGBxIwK+FB+hryY9thxPbOEBaDhwgrEVCIqdMmrHteGIbKJAlG5J5JGccbMbrF/kZ6dskf7ZVJ85vB0Vlg509P3/zwQ8f8WgBBwEPKh8UTQQA4w+CSkbBKBgFo2BEAwAuHVD65kMODQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7004-176X","institution":"Qingdao University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Han","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":612371849,"identity":"f84c62d7-a84e-4a76-b3f3-62e57b48e3af","order_by":1,"name":"Huiying Wang","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7692-3176","institution":"Qingdao University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Huiying","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":612371850,"identity":"076c4722-54e5-4f1c-86b0-79c0c8dc93fa","order_by":2,"name":"Xiaoxin Yang","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2359-1846","institution":"Ocean University of China","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xiaoxin","middleName":"","lastName":"Yang","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-26 04:02:40","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":true,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":true},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9228926/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9228926/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":105566656,"identity":"1ad7db90-8065-41f1-8397-e7aff416fb04","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-27 12:56:54","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1128855,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"ManuscriptPreprint.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9228926/v1_covered_aa2c473e-c157-4773-880a-06cdff564f1f.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eStandardization Governance and Urban Green Innovation: Evidence from China’s National Pilot Reform\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"Qingdao University","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Standardization Governance, Urban Green Innovation, National Standardization Reform Pilot, Institutional Tool","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9228926/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9228926/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eStandardization acts as a key driver of governance and production efficiency, playing a crucial role in fostering green innovation. 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