Technological Learning and Innovation in the Mexican Chemical Industry: An Exercise in Taxonomy

Abstract

The article presents some results of a research carried out in the Mexican chemical industry, with the objective of reflecting on the capacities and the weaknesses of technological learning and firms' innovative behaviour. After defining in an operative way the notion of technological learning, we propose a taxonomy based on a multifactorial analysis which makes it possible to combine all the variables that we have chosen as indicators of technological learning and innovation. The principal finding is that the companies that have more 'technological' linkages with their environment and greater accumulation of technological capabilities paradoxically show relatively less innovative activity than other types of firms. Some exploratory hypotheses are offered by way of explanation.