Behind every successful innovation lies the ability to absorb, adapt, and apply knowledge. Yet for many firms and economies, this flow of knowledge is anything but smooth. This chapter tells the story of how promising ideas often falter when they meet the barriers of weak absorptive capacities, fragmented systems, and shallow learning routines. It explores how firms may gain access to new technologies through trade, foreign investment, or collaborations, but without the skills and structures to internalise them, opportunities remain unrealised. At the systemic level, poor coordination between universities, firms, and policy frameworks compounds these weaknesses, creating bottlenecks that stifle diffusion. Global value chains add another twist: Integration may bring access, but often on terms that limit local upgrading. By unpacking these dynamics, the chapter reveals why knowledge, the most celebrated currency of the innovation age, so often slips through the fingers of those who need it most.