when their entrepreneurs get new ideas, there needs to be capital available
for them to implement new technological improvements. Tight capital markets
and sluggish growth severely impede the effectiveness of within-firm
technological development.
b) Transfers from University-based scientific discovery. The other
mechanism for developing national technological capacity is the development
of basic science and engineering along with the local training of a
scientifically sophisticated labor force. The role of universities in promoting
clusters of technologically advanced firms is well known – with
Stanford/Silicon Valley being the pre-eminent example. (Yusuf and
Nabeshima 2007) Engineering schools in particular have been important in
shaping the strategies of international competitiveness used by semi-
peripheral nations to rise to the core – a good example being how different
approaches to engineering in American and German universities led to
profound differences in the models of core capitalism that were adopted.
(Nelson and Wright 1992)
Brazil faces severe challenges in obtaining technological advantages either from
local industrial firms or from its universities. This makes the prospect of Brazil
obtaining core status in the middle period to appear relatively unlikely. Many of these
problems are systemic at their base and involve the adverse effects of the world-
system dynamics associated with debt repayment and the neoliberal assault both on
the control of local capital and the financial integrity of the state.
It is well known that Brazil suffers from high levels of international debt – and the
repayment of this debt severely hampers economic development. (Potter 2000)
4
Convention