Drawing on the strategic goal literature and integrat- ing insights from the knowledge-based view of the firm and open innovation research, this study finds that firms’ strategic goals influence knowledge sourc- ing practices and innovation performance in a sample of Belgian commercial firms. A firm’s emphasis on social goals indirectly impacts its innovation perfor- mance through the increased use of two key external knowledge sourcing practices (namely, external infor- mation sourcing and greater engagement in collabo- ration), while economic goals only relate to external information sourcing and not to collaboration. Thus, social goals allow firms to access an additional valu- able information channel that leads to an improved ability to generate revenue from new goods and ser- vices. Moreover, the study found no evidence of an inherent conflict between social and economic goals.