External Environment, Social Exchange,and International Research Collaboration:A Study of China’s State Key Laboratories

International research collaboration (IRC) is crucial to improving science and technology (S&T) research capabilities.Existing literature has revealed that several factors influence IRC, but a complete analytical framework has yet to be developed.This study attempts to fill this gap by building a framework to analyze the IRC of China's State Key Laboratories (SKLs).Based on the external environment oriented toward resource dependence theory and social exchange theory, a questionnaire was designed and deployed within SKLs.Ten hypotheses were established and tested using the structural equation model (SEM) in Amos 23 software.The results showed that, among external environmental factors, China's S&T policy has facilitated the IRC of SKLs.In addition, international S&T decoupling with China inhibited the IRC of SKLs.Finally, the results showed that COVID-19 did not exert a significant negative influence.Among the social exchange factors, collaboration effects, collaboration reciprocity, and collaboration ties exerted a positive influence on the IRC of SKLs.External environmental factors also worked in tandem with social exchange factors.