Innovation and Economic Development: Lessons from Latin America
Special Issue of Innovation: Management, Policy & Practice
Volume 7 Issue 2-3 August 2005
iv+242 pages ISBN 978-0-9750436-5-3
Editors:
Gabriela Dutrénit
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Xochimilco, México and
Mark Dodgson
Technology and Innovation Management Centre
University of Queensland Business School with
Introduction by Jorge Katz
University of Chile, Santiago, Chile and Conicet, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Science and technology appear to be the key to industrial development in advanced economies. However, how they can be effectively used for economic growth and social reconstruction in today's developing countries remains an unanswered question. This collection explores experiences of innovation in Latin America through 12 case studies. Drawing upon the lessons learned, new policy approaches for other developing countries are presented.
To a large extent, economic and social development depends upon the ability of developing countries to build a trajectory of learning and innovation. So far, these trajectories have mostly arisen by default: as an unplanned consequence of 'learning by doing' during the expansion of local production activities: or, of 'adaptive engineering efforts' carried out on the basis of imported know-how. Therefore, the real challenge for policy and decision makers is how to progress from circumstantial activities to a 'pro-active' technological strategy that would allow major innovation effort and technological generation activity to drive the development process.
Jorge Katz and Gabriela Dutrénit frame the context of the case studies and research presented in this collection with a comprehensive Introduction to the role of innovation in economic development. Grouped into sections on 'Technological performance', 'Learning and knowledge flows in national and international innovation systems' and 'New policy approaches for development', these Latin-American case studies provide valuable course materials, experiences and insights with implications for public policy and decision makers. Theoretical and methodological tools developed in this work may be applied to other developing countries of Asia and Africa, to the transition economies of East and Central Europe, and to smaller economies within NAFTA, APEC, ASEAN and the EU.
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