This analysis identifies the effects of prevailing credit constraints on efforts of formal R&D innovators and (informal) non-R&D innovators in the manufacturing sector in Latin America and examines whether the global financial crisis aggravated these effects. It demonstrates that formal R&D innovators faced binding credit constraints that severely disturbed their innovative efforts, while non-R&D innovators remained unaffected. Furthermore, the global financial crisis put no additional strain on either R&D or non-R&D innovators. The analysis also identifies characteristics of R&D and non-R&D innovators and points to important differences in size, age, or ownership structure but similarities in international trading activities.