IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natene/v5y2020i10d10.1038_s41560-020-00683-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Patenting and business outcomes for cleantech startups funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy

Author

Listed:
  • Anna Goldstein

    (University of Massachusetts Amherst
    Harvard University)

  • Claudia Doblinger

    (Technical University of Munich)

  • Erin Baker

    (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

  • Laura Díaz Anadón

    (Harvard University
    University of Cambridge)

Abstract

Innovation to reduce the cost of clean technologies has large environmental and societal benefits. Governments can play an important role in helping cleantech startups innovate and overcome risks involved in technology development. Here we examine the impact of the US Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) on two outcomes for startup companies: innovation (measured by patenting activity) and business success (measured by venture capital funding raised, survival, and acquisition or initial public offering). We compare 25 startups funded by ARPA-E in 2010 to rejected ARPA-E applicants, startups funded by a related government programme and other comparable cleantech startups. We find that ARPA-E awardees have a strong innovation advantage over all the comparison groups. However, while we find that ARPA-E awardees performed better than rejected applicants in terms of post-award business success, we do not detect significant differences compared to other cleantech startups. These findings suggest that ARPA-E was not able to fully address the ‘valley of death’ for cleantech startups within 10–15 yr after founding.

Suggested Citation

  • Anna Goldstein & Claudia Doblinger & Erin Baker & Laura Díaz Anadón, 2020. "Patenting and business outcomes for cleantech startups funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 5(10), pages 803-810, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:5:y:2020:i:10:d:10.1038_s41560-020-00683-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41560-020-00683-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-020-00683-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41560-020-00683-8?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matthias van den Heuvel & David Popp, 2022. "The Role of Venture Capital and Governments in Clean Energy: Lessons from the First Cleantech Bubble," CESifo Working Paper Series 9684, CESifo.
    2. van den Heuvel, Matthias & Popp, David, 2023. "The role of venture capital and governments in clean energy: lessons from the first cleantech bubble," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    3. Harilal Krishna & Yash Kashyap & Dwarkeshwar Dutt & Ambuj D. Sagar & Abhishek Malhotra, 2023. "Understanding India’s low-carbon energy technology startup landscape," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 94-105, January.
    4. David Popp & Francesco Vona & Myriam Grégoire-Zawilski & Giovanni Marin, 2024. "The Next Wave of Energy Innovation: Which Technologies? Which Skills?," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(1), pages 45-65.
    5. Aldy, Joseph E., 2022. "Learning How to Build Back Better through Clean Energy Policy Evaluation," RFF Working Paper Series 22-15, Resources for the Future.
    6. Nelson, Sarah & Allwood, Julian M., 2021. "The technological and social timelines of climate mitigation: Lessons from 12 past transitions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    7. Adewale A. Adesanya, 2021. "Can Michigan’s Upper Peninsula Achieve Justice in Transitioning to 100% Renewable Electricity? Survey of Public Perceptions in Sociotechnical Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-25, January.
    8. Paul X. McCarthy & Xian Gong & Fabian Stephany & Fabian Braesemann & Marian-Andrei Rizoiu & Margaret L. Kern, 2023. "The Science of Startups: The Impact of Founder Personalities on Company Success," Papers 2302.07968, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:5:y:2020:i:10:d:10.1038_s41560-020-00683-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.