Abstract In the innovation and development literature, natural resources (NR) are generally viewed as a curse for developing nations and NR‐based industries as having little potential to innovate and drive long‐term growth. This has led policy and development experts to opt for strategies to induce a shift in the pattern of specialization towards other sectors. This paper proposes a different approach. By exploring recent evidence from the Argentinean agricultural sector and the mining industry in Chile, it points to the window of opportunity that NR industries offer as a platform to develop knowledge intensive industries with which to support economic development in resource‐endowed countries. The lessons drawn from these findings suggest that development strategies can also promote more innovative knowledge intensive NR‐based industries rather than moving away from them.
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