Can overseas R&D improve domestic industry-university-research institutions’ cooperation?

Overseas R&D has been linked to innovation performance. However, few papers integrate overseas R&D with the domestic industry-university-research institutions cooperation (IUR cooperation) under a unified framework, concerning the interaction of open innovation and distinguishing different cooperation patterns. This study conducts an empirical investigation into how overseas R&D activities influence the innovative outcomes of IUR collaborations, as well as the underlying mechanisms facilitating this impact. We discover that overseas R&D significantly boosts the innovation performance of IUR cooperation, particularly for state-owned firms, firms based in the (sub-) provincial cities and under high market competition intensity. Additionally, optimizing firms’ structural features in the global innovation network (GIN) and improving the dynamic capabilities of the firms are two vital channels. Overall, our study provides decision-making reference on how to effectively coordinate domestic and foreign innovation activities for firms, and then achieve high-quality economic development.