Driven by a rapid development of the so-called ‘open innovation’ paradigm, previous studies have provided broad evidence of the positive effects of external knowledge sources on innovation. Yet, little is known about the impact of external knowledge sources on innovative activities in the renewable energy sector. Based on an analysis of original survey results involving R&D organisations, we examine the role of different knowledge sourcing strategies for innovation in two technology fields, namely solar and wind power. The link between external knowledge sourcing and innovation performance is found to depend on sourcing strategies and technology fields. Our results contribute to the evaluation of strategy design by showing that solar power innovation benefits from a broad search strategy drawing on a large number of external knowledge sources, while wind power innovation tends to thrive through intensive use of a more limited number of external sources. We derive implications for innovation and energy policy.

在所谓的“开放式创新”范式的快速发展的推动下，先前的研究提供了广泛的证据，证明了外部知识源对创新的积极影响。然而，关于外部知识资源对可再生能源领域创新活动的影响知之甚少。在对涉及研发组织的原始调查结果进行分析的基础上，我们研究了不同知识来源战略在创新技术在太阳能和风能两个技术领域中的作用。发现外部知识采购与创新绩效之间的联系取决于采购策略和技术领域。我们的研究结果表明，太阳能创新受益于广泛的搜索策略，该搜索策略借鉴了众多外部知识资源，从而为战略设计做出了贡献，而风电创新往往通过大量使用数量有限的外部资源而蓬勃发展。我们对创新和能源政策产生了影响。