- 1 -                 ♣     !""#    •    ♦ ♣ This paper is part of the project “The interaction between FDIs and local SMEs in Latin America and the Caribbean: a look at Regional Innovation Systems”, financed by the IADB and carried out by ISLA. • Alberto Brugnoli is project coordinator and senior researcher at ISLA, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy, Email: alberto.brugnoli@unibocconi.it ♦ Rubens R. Sawaya is local project consultant from Catholic University of São Paulo-PUCSP The authors would like to thank Alessandro Barattieri for the excellent research assistance he provided during all the phases of the present study and for his very useful comments.