The finance of innovation in Latin America

This study contributes to the extant literature on innovation by examining how private companies fund innovation activities and R&D in Latin America. Specifically, this study seeks to identify whether innovative companies exhibit financing patterns different from those of non-innovative ones. In addition, this study aims at gauging the association between innovation and firm features, such as age, bank financing, female participation in ownership, financial constraints, and foreign ownership, among others.Based on information for Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, and Peru for 2010, firm size, firm age, financial constraints, and funding sources appear as the main drivers of innovation in Latin American countries. The figures also show that over 60% of the sampled firms displayed a very low or non-existent innovation level. A pending strategic task in Latin America is to increase both the R&D expenditure/GDP ratio and patent activities, and to attract highly-qualified researchers to industry.