Sammendrag
We analyse if firms engaged in ‘green’ innovation activities, display different collaboration patterns with external partners compared to otherwise similar 'non-green' companies. Regarding the definition of ‘green’ we focus on firms engaged in innovation activities in renewable energy. This overall research question is triggered by the presumption that green innovations requires firms to source in knowledge and other resources in a distinct manner. We compare entrepreneurial, green firms with other firms. We explore their horizontal or vertical networking activities and the capabilities involved. The data stems from a recent (2014) special section of the CIS survey in Denmark, which included questions on energy innovation. Our quantitative analyses use a dataset with 2.087 firms, of which 550 have such activities. Firms who introduce ‘green’ innovations are notably more likely to engage in collective innovation activities than non-green innovators. Counter to expectations, we find that overall their collaboration patterns in terms of which actors they interact with are almost exactly as in other firms, only with higher frequency. We further found weak/no correlation between green innovation and innovative performance. We ascribe this to the long time-lags between product innovation and market penetration in renewable energy. Our qualitative data consist of a case study of an exemplary firm of our study. We find that the motivation behind collaborating with multiple partners is often related to accessing capabilities that the entrepreneurial green firm does not have in house, as well as tapping into resources, tangible and intangible, that these partners control. The findings have implications for green start-ups and for policy. For green start-ups we point to the need to actively engage in networks to broaden their knowledge base, and access a variety of capabilities and resources that are indispensable to the organization. Our results also show that policies for enhancing the cooperation capabilities of firms engaged in green innovations need not be different than other policies, even though special policies tailored to the context of green entrepreneurship may fulfil several other meaningful goals. The study is relevant and important as it reveals the character of a ‘sub-system of innovation’, in which small, entrepreneurial firms enter markets for new, green technologies. In doing so, we provide a conceptual complement to innovation system theory, but we also provide a useful guidance for more effective policy, and firm strategy.
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