Summary

Focusing on the technological trajectories of firms and research teams in resource-intensive primary sectors of Brazil, Costa Rica, Peru, and South Africa, this volume contributes to an important ongoing economic debate. This analysis provides detailed descriptions of both failed and successful attempts at knowledge intensification of resource-based productive activities in countries that are often, incorrectly, lumped into the category of "resource-rich underachievers." Combining in-depth technological expertise with a theoretical grounding in the economics of learning, technological upgrading, and innovation, this argument underlines that, more than what countries produce, how they go about it is what matters to development practice.