Cross-border R&D, absorptive capacity and innovation performance

In the process of innovation, the importance of utilizing external knowledge by countries has gradually been recognized. Against the backdrop of economic globalization, accessing and absorbing external knowledge through cross-border R&D has become a significant means for both countries and enterprises to enhance innovation performance. Within the increasingly frequent global network structure formed by cross-border R&D investments, national innovation performance is jointly influenced by external network relations and absorptive capacity. Combining network theory and absorptive capacity theory, this paper portrays the global cross-border R&D investment network structure, empirically examines the relationship between network position, absorptive capacity, and innovation performance using panel data consisting of 16060 cross-border R&D investment projects spanning from 2003 to 2020. The results indicate that global cross-border R&D investments have formed a complete topological network structure characterized by a core-periphery feature, indicating heterogeneous distribution of countries’ positions in the network. Countries in different positions exhibit varying impacts of cross-border R&D on innovation performance. Countries with higher node strength and richer structural holes tend to have higher innovation output. Additionally, absorptive capacity plays a positive moderating role between network position and innovation performance, although this role varies heterogeneously between developed and developing countries. This research serves as a valuable theoretical resource for guiding the design of cross-border R&D and innovation policies.