Corporate R&D internationalisation is today considered as a knowledge-augmenting strategy, in a polarised cognitive world. We seek to define precisely what the firms do target when localising R&D labs abroad. What cannot be transferred are situated networks for tacit knowledge co-production and sharing. Firms do not whish to absorb these networks but aim at penetrating them in a contributive way. Empirical checking must then not lay on knowledge transfer indicators, but on indicators of participation in these networks.