The study seeks to identify the determinants of a firm’s foreign entry mode choice and the impact of mode selection on firm performance for the specific case of R&D – a topic so far not investigated in entry mode research. Separate estimates of a Heckman selection model for Austria and Switzerland, based on comparable firm-level data and variable specification, show for both countries that the OLI model is well-suited to explain not only the propensity to investing abroad in R&D but also the respective choice between equity-based and non-equity governance modes. Moreover, it turns out, but only for Swiss companies, that foreign R&D raises (domestic) firm performance with a larger impact in case of equity-based governance. The differences between the two countries primarily reflect the much higher degree of R&D internationalisation of Switzerland.