Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2015
  • Chapter
  • The Changing Frontier: Rethinking Science and Innovation Policy

Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Renewable Energy

By: Ramana Nanda, Ken Younge and Lee Fleming
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

We document three facts related to innovation and entrepreneurship in renewable energy. Using data from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, we first show that patenting in renewable energy remains highly concentrated in a few large energy firms. In 2009, the top 20 firms accounted for over 40% of renewable energy patents in our data. Second, we compare patenting by venture-backed startups and incumbent firms. Using a variety of measures, we find that VC-backed startups are engaged in more novel and more highly cited innovations, compared to incumbent firms. Incumbent firms also have a higher share of patents that are completely un-cited or self-cited, suggesting that incumbents are more likely to engage in incremental innovation compared to VC-backed startups. Third, we document a rising share of patenting by startups that coincided with the surge in venture capital finance for renewable energy technologies in the early 2000s. We also point to structural factors about renewable energy that have caused the availability of venture capital finance for renewable energy to fall dramatically in recent years, with potential implications for the rate and trajectory of innovation in this sector.

Keywords

Entrepreneurial Finance; Entrepreneurial Management; Energy; Finance; Entrepreneurship; Energy Industry

Citation

Nanda, Ramana, Ken Younge, and Lee Fleming. "Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Renewable Energy." Chap. 7 in The Changing Frontier: Rethinking Science and Innovation Policy, edited by Adam Jaffe and Benjamin Jones, 199–232. University of Chicago Press, 2015.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now
  • Purchase

About The Author

Ramana Nanda

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • September 2022
    • Journal of Monetary Economics

    House Prices, Home Equity and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from U.S. Census Micro Data

    By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda
    • 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Are Transformational Ideas Harder to Fund? Resource Allocation to R&D Projects at a Global Pharmaceutical Firm

    By: Joshua Krieger and Ramana Nanda
    • 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Catching Outliers: Committee Voting and the Limits of Consensus when Financing Innovation

    By: Andrey Malenko, Ramana Nanda, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Savitar Sundaresan
More from the Authors
  • House Prices, Home Equity and Entrepreneurship: Evidence from U.S. Census Micro Data By: Sari Pekkala Kerr, William R. Kerr and Ramana Nanda
  • Are Transformational Ideas Harder to Fund? Resource Allocation to R&D Projects at a Global Pharmaceutical Firm By: Joshua Krieger and Ramana Nanda
  • Catching Outliers: Committee Voting and the Limits of Consensus when Financing Innovation By: Andrey Malenko, Ramana Nanda, Matthew Rhodes-Kropf and Savitar Sundaresan
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College