Against the backdrop of nationwide rural revitalization efforts, geographical indications (GIs) have emerged as institutional tools combining legal protection and policy leverage, holding significant promise for empowering specialized industries and fostering regional prosperity.

This paper employs a multi-period DID model, leveraging variations in the regional, temporal, and enterprise-level dimensions of GI designations. The study integrates the three datasets of GI registration records, China’s Enterprise Tax Survey Database, and China’s Adjacent County-District Matrix. It addresses three key questions: (1) Does GI certification genuinely empower rural industries at the micro level or merely serve as nominal labels? (2) Do leading enterprises whose products are directly certified as GIs play a pioneering role in driving local industrial development? (3) How does GI certification affect neighboring regions through the spatial spillover effect?

The results show that whether certification is granted at the county level or directly awarded to specific enterprises, GI certification significantly enhances corporate performance. Mechanism testing indicates that certified enterprises experience “institutional empowerment” through increased R&D investment, while non-certified enterprises in certified counties undergo “competitive branding”, compelling them to raise marketing expenditures to capture market share. (3) Industry leaders amplify the impact of GI certification by driving synergistic growth among clustered enterprises. In addition, enterprises in counties adjacent to GI-certified regions also exhibit performance gains, confirming the spatial spillover effect of this policy.

This paper makes the following contributions: First, it systematically examines the impact of GI certification on corporate performance at the enterprise level, filling the gap in existing research that mainly focuses on macro or industry levels. Second, it examines the dual mechanisms of production efficiency and market expansion, effectively responding to the debate of “empowerment or branding”. Third, it pioneers exploration of the spatial spillover effect through a novel integration of GI certification data and inter-county adjacency matrices, providing empirical evidence for understanding cross-regional policy synergies. The conclusions offer policy insights for optimizing regional brand governance and strengthening county-level wealth-boosting industries.