MNCs often engage in international research collaborations with foreign universities through one of their central R&D laboratories (at headquarters or elsewhere) even though they operate a local R&D unit close to that university, and hence forego the benefits of geographic proximity and local collaboration. Drawing on the knowledge-based theory of the firm, we hypothesize that the choice between distant and local collaboration systematically relates to the knowledge capabilities of the firms’ R&D units, the characteristics of the focal knowledge, and local knowledge leakage risks. Analysis of close to 13,000 research collaborations with foreign universities by the world’s major biopharmaceutical firms (1995–2015) confirms that collaboration at distance occurs if this allows the firm to benefit from scale and knowledge diversity advantages, if the central unit has strong basic research capabilities, and if collaboration is in a core research domain of the MNC while rival firms are locally present. Maturity of the focal research domain is associated with local collaboration. Our findings qualify the common arguments in favor of collaboration in proximity and suggest that (distant) central R&D units are important orchestrators of research collaboration with universities around the globe.

跨国公司经常通过其中央研发实验室之一（在总部或其他地方）与外国大学进行国际研究合作，即使它们在该大学附近经营一个当地研发单位，因此放弃了地理接近和当地合作的好处。借鉴企业的知识基础理论，我们假设远程协作和本地协作之间的选择系统地与企业研发单位的知识能力、焦点知识的特征和本地知识泄漏风险有关。分析接近13，世界主要生物制药公司与外国大学的 000 次研究合作（1995-2015 年）证实，如果远程合作能够使公司受益于规模和知识多样性优势，如果中央单位具有强大的基础研究能力，并且如果远程合作发生是跨国公司的核心研究领域，而竞争对手公司则在当地存在。重点研究领域的成熟度与当地合作有关。我们的研究结果证明了支持近距离合作的共同论点，并表明（远距离的）中央研发单位是与全球大学研究合作的重要协调者。重点研究领域的成熟度与当地合作有关。我们的研究结果证明了支持近距离合作的共同论点，并表明（远距离的）中央研发单位是与全球大学研究合作的重要协调者。重点研究领域的成熟度与当地合作有关。我们的研究结果证明了支持近距离合作的共同论点，并表明（远距离的）中央研发单位是与全球大学研究合作的重要协调者。