Abstract: With the development of innovative companies to exploit technology externally, scholars started to concern external technology commercialization active strategy. The study analyzes how radical innovation influences external technology commercialization active strategy and the moderate effect of environment. The empirical study is based on the survey data of 155 innovative companies. This paper uses linear regression models to test assumptions underlying the direct impact of radical innovation and the moderate effect of institution. The results show that radical innovation has positive effects on the external technology commercialization active strategy. Furthermore, the study finds that the patent protection strengthens the positive effects of the radical innovation, while the industry transaction frequency weakens the positive effects. The paper contributes to explaining the motivation of firms’ external technology commercialization active strategy. The research also provides the practical value for Chinese firms’ external technology commercialization active strategy in incomplete tech-market.