Innovation in natural resources: New opportunities and new challenges. The case of the Argentinean seed industry

Marin A. and Stubrin L.I.
Additional contact information
Stubrin L.I.: UNU-MERIT

No 2015-015, MERIT Working Papers from United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT)

Abstract: In this paper, using the case of seeds, we explore the existence of both new opportunities and new challenges for innovation in Natural Resource Based Industries NRBIs in developing countries. Conventional views construe NRBIs as low tech, with low technological dynamism, little innovation, and little capacity to create linkages towards other sectors. However, these views are being increasingly questioned. Some authors argue that although NRs have always provided opportunities for innovation and growth; substantial changes in international institutions, markets and technologies during the last two decades or so have created new and a more diverse set of opportunities for a larger number of developing countries to take advantage of their NRs. We contribute to this literature by providing new empirical evidence that helps to better understand these new opportunities. In addition, we suggest that as new opportunities are being created, new challenges also emerge, and countries which do not comprehend fully both of these might lose the opportunity opened by this historical moment of change to become world leader innovators in NRs and related industries. Empirically we study the case of seeds innovation in Argentina - a world agricultural leader with a strong and advanced domestic seed industry. Based on firms interviews and secondary data we show how the new opportunities created for innovation in seeds have been taken by some companies in the developing world and how some new challenges are questioning the capacity to pursue further some of the new opportunities

Keywords: Economic Development, Agriculture, Natural Resources, Energy, Environment, Technological Change, Diffusion Processes, Government Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 O33 O38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-ino
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2015/wp2015-015.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unm:unumer:2015015

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in MERIT Working Papers from United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ad Notten ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).