Obstacles to innovation in Brazil: The lack of qualified individuals to implement innovation and establish university–firm interactions

Through an investigation of data available from the Brazilian Innovation Survey (Pesquisa de Inovação) of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística) and from a national survey on university–firm interactions (the BR Survey), the authors show that Brazilian industrial firms lack qualified individuals for two key activities: the promotion of innovation and the establishment of a dialogue between universities and firms. Brazilian firms’ weaknesses and the inadequacy of the workforce supply generate scarce (or inadequate) ‘know-why’. Furthermore, a restricted perspective in Brazilian universities, focused on creating a more educated society rather than augmenting the stock of technological knowledge, constrains the generation of ‘know-what’ and ‘know-who’.