R&D offshoring, technology learning and R&D efforts of host country firms in emerging economies

► We study the impact of R&D offshoring of multinational enterprises. ► We model the interaction between foreign affiliates and host country firms. ► An analysis of 12,309 firms in the ICT sector in China supports the model. ► R&D offshoring has a positive effect on the R&D efforts of host country firms. ► The positive effect diminishes with the geographical distance.