Summaries This article addresses the challenges and limits for upgrading in the case of individual firms from developing countries. Their initial involvement in global value chains demand distinct sets of competencies depending on the characteristics of the chain, and their permanence in the chain requires a continuous process of self development dictated by the governance patterns. The conclusions are based on a study of the plastics manufacturing industry in Brazil, which has gone through a radical transition, from firms specialising in specific transformation processes supplying different types of markets to firms specialising in specific products supplying a specific type of value chain.