We study the technological impact of firms that patent in environmental domains at an early stage of their lifecycle, Green Technology-Based Startups (GTBSs). Building on a large patent-level data of US patenting firms from 1976 to 2019, we compare the inventive performance of GTBSs with that of other startups and incumbent firms. We find that GTBSs produce more impactful inventions than both comparison groups. Citation premia is in the range 8-20% and the probability of novelty is more than 3 percentage points higher. This advantage is concentrated in green patents and is strongest among firms that combine green and non-green technologies. The GTBS advantage is also time-bound. It declines as firms mature, consistent with the consolidation of organisational routines over the firm lifecycle. We further find that inventor-team technological distance is central to these patterns. GTBSs exhibit levels of distance lower than or comparable to those of other startups but higher than those of incumbent firms, indicating that the highest-impact inventions are generated at intermediate levels of cognitive diversity. These results suggest that firm type, lifecycle dynamics and knowledge recombination jointly shape technological impact. Policies supporting startups that integrate green and non-green capabilities may yield higher innovation returns.

LUPI Giacomo Roberto;  RENTOCCHINI Francesco;  RIZZO Ugo; 

2026-09-25

ELSEVIER SCIENCE INC

JRC148001

1873-5509 (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162526003173?via%3Dihub,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC148001,   

10.1016/j.techfore.2026.124840 (online),