The internationalisation of firms is increasingly concerned with locating innovation activities in the most appropriate locations, particularly for more strategic research and development projects. This article attempts to explore this area by taking a slightly different perspective – the internationalisation of innovations by advance-economy firms in less-advanced economies – which is increasingly prominent in international business development. This article describes the history of international expansion of AstraZeneca from 1990s to year 2014, which demonstrates the development of the company with its unique approach to international business operations, and in particular its innovation. In order to explain such a progress, considerations are given to a number of theoretical frameworks in terms of their explanatory power.