Hard connectivity and soft standardization: how logistics policy coordination shapes supply chain resilience

In responding to supply chain disruptions, logistics infrastructure investment and institutional standardization reforms are often implemented separately, yet whether their coordinated implementation translates into stronger firm-level supply chain resilience remains unclear. Using a panel of Chinese A-share listed manufacturing firms from 2011 to 2023, this paper exploits the staggered rollout and policy overlap of the National Circulation Node City policy and the Logistics Standardization Pilot City policy as a quasi-natural experiment, and applies a difference-in-differences framework to identify the incremental effect of joint implementation relative to either policy alone. We find that coordinated implementation significantly enhances firm-level supply chain resilience, with effects exceeding those of each policy in isolation. Mechanism analyses show that the synergy operates through improved operational efficiency, reduced supply chain concentration, and expanded cross-regional operations. The effects are more pronounced for large firms, state-owned enterprises, and firms located in more segmented markets, and are amplified by local digital infrastructure and firms’ digital transformation, while also varying with the sequence of policy adoption. These findings highlight the complementarity between infrastructure connectivity and institutional standardization, and provide firm-level evidence for policy designs aimed at strengthening supply chain resilience through coordinated governance.