Green window of opportunity in Latin America: local and global knowledge linkages

• Green technologies offer a window of opportunity for Latin American countries. • Entry into new technologies is positively associated with both local and global interactions, but only within green domains. • Policies should support global and local knowledge collaboration for developing technologies in green domains. This paper investigates whether the green transition represents a “green window of opportunity” for Latin American countries by examining how local and global knowledge networks shape technological specialisation in the region. We analyse the role of knowledge linkages—both local and global—and their technological nature (green versus non-green) in driving the emergence of new patent specialisations. Using United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) data for 16 Latin American countries between 2000 and 2019, we estimate an entry model that relates the probability of developing new technological specialisations to network cohesion (local collaboration) and connectivity (global collaboration). Our results show that the green transition constitutes a window of opportunity: both local and global network interactions positively and significantly influence entry into new technologies, but only for green technological domains. Furthermore, our results highlight how global collaborations are more influential than local ones.