Tomas Gabriel Bas

Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Clusters in Latin America Natural Resource – Implication and Future Challenges

The natural resources play a very important role in the economy of the Latin America countries, but follow the classical models of resource exploitation and scale do not add much more value to the products or services like other knowledge-based industries (biotechnology or IT). The cluster approach assembled around the pattern of innovation and entrepreneurship characteristics can help to improve these kinds of industries. Nevertheless, the “Natural Resource Clusters” have a particular task and they are based primary in environmental characteristics. However, this type of clusters is very different from “Technology Clusters” with a high innovation and entrepreneurship structure that needs explicitly more intellectual capacities and non-specific environmental characteristics. The authors suggest that in Latin America, clusters, innovation and entrepreneurship based in the natural resources has a supplementary significance, but they need add much value based in the knowledge. This article discuss the challenge of Latin American economies and the implication to transform the natural resources based industries in others with more innovation and knowledge based assets and shows a framework based on Chile’s particular experiences on salmon; wine and mining industries. Economics implications and future research are discussed.

National Systems of Innovations and Natural Resources Clusters: Evidence from Copper Mining Industry Patents

While natural resource-based industries are very efficient exploiting the natural endowments in developing countries and having an important participation in world markets (e.g. copper in Chile), most of them have not generated economic development based in knowledge-based resources in their societies. While this article reviews the national system of innovations in which the mining industry in Chile is based, we cannot neglect the importance of an international dimension in terms of its spatial dimension of the system of innovations [Fromhold-Eisebith, M. (2007) Bridging scales in innovation policies: How to link regional, national and international innovation systems, European Planning Studies, 15, pp. 217–233.] given the globalized characteristics of the mining industry. We found that Chile contributes 36% of the total copper production in the world but the investments in research and development are very low compared with the revenues of the industry and there are almost no patents originated in Chile registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) data base, the most important market for knowledge-based innovations. We can conclude that Chile is still depending on comparative advantages rather than constructed advantages [Cooke, P. (2007) To construct regional advantage from innovation systems first build policy platforms, European Planning Studies, 15, pp. 179–194.].

University involvement in economic development in natural-resource based regions

In a globalised world, regions are acquiring more relevance especially in natural resources based industries such as wine, mining, agriculture or fish farming. Regions appeared to be following two different development paths. A region may only be known because it provides the base for the exploitation of the natural resource, e.g., copper in Chile. A region is known not only because of its primary sector but also because of its related sectors like suppliers of machinery or R&D laboratories as well as it premium quality in the production of natural resource based products, e.g., salmon in Norway. Supporting institutions like universities can be key players in attracting other firms not related directly to the exploitation of the natural resources endowments but related with the development of human capital and the development of business models based on knowledge to add value to simple natural-resource based products. We review the case of three Argentinean universities embedded in natural resource-based regions to evaluate their level of support to regional development. We conclude that universities should not only facilitate local interaction but also expand the knowledge sources developing linkages with extra-regional sources like foreign direct investments and academic networking.

Competencies, knowledge and capabilities based on natural resources in Southern Chile

The implication of competencies, scientific knowledge and technological capability in the Southern Chilean Region (SCR) is explored in this paper. Therefore, we propose establish patterns of development that can help improve the innovative capacity in the region using natural resources. We present the theory on building capacities and knowledge, followed by an analysis of emergence and development of the sectors identified as most economically dynamic in the SCR: salmon, mussels and berries. We use a macro-regional grouping, as strategic sectors of the regions that are similar and that allow comparison. The Rios and Lagos regions are the most representative in the economic sphere, where the salmon industry is the largest contributor in terms of growth and employment generation. We analyse the dynamic sectors that have largely contributed to the advancement of the region in terms of innovation by scientific knowledge and competencies. Finally, we explore the patterns to make possible its growth or not.