Joining forces: collaboration patterns and performance of renewable energy innovators

Abstract

This article explores the pattern and breadth of collaboration activities of innovating firms active in renewable energy (RE), and the impact of collaboration on firm-level innovation performance. We deploy a unique dataset from a special section of the 2014 CIS survey in Denmark, in which we included questions that enable us to unambiguously identify RE innovators. In a quantitative analysis, we contrast collaboration patterns of RE and non-RE innovators, where we find RE innovators to show a higher tendency to collaborate, and with a more diverse set of partners. We complement this analysis with a qualitative single-case study within the offshore wind industry in order to illuminate longitudinal and contextual effects that were only indicative in the quantitative analysis. We focus particularly on changes in the pattern of collaboration as the firm matures and its links with performance. The case shows that because the needs of RE innovators vary through their development, the purpose and types of collaborations change. Further, both from our quantitative and qualitative studies, we find weak relationship between RE firms’ collaboration breadth and innovative performance. We ascribe this to the long time-lags between product innovation and market penetration in RE. We thereby highlight the heterogeneity of collaboration rationales, patterns, and impact across sectors and over time.