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Network or open innovation is not fundamentally new phenomenon. The paper examines the major determinants of the globalization of firms’ R&D by referring to the Evolutionist Theory, which stresses the fact that the accumulation of knowledge is a means of innovation and is the basis of the transformation of firms’ structures. The aim is to develop a new methodological framework that will lead us to a better understanding of the real aspects of this phenomenon, in particular the synergies that are formed among the different players (firms, institutions) in the context of the globalization of innovation processes. Thus, two points will be developed. First, the paper reexamines the notions of firm and of MNC in order to better understand the innovation processes and the background in which firms innovate. Second, a distinction is operated between on the first hand the endogenous determinants of the globalization of the firms’ R&D namely those which are linked to the creation of technological resources and to the improvement of skills and on the second hand exogenous determinants, that is those which are linked to changes in the process and in the background of innovation.JEL Codes: F23, 032, L 62, L68