International competition drives research universities to find ways to anchor globalization for academic productivity and innovation through cross-border collaboration. This article examines the case of pre- and post-colonial Hong Kong and how its universities transited from undergraduate institutions to highly ranked research universities within 30 years. While this is attributed to an enabling environment of institutional autonomy, open borders and cross-cultural capacity, a case study of one research university points to the role played in all of Hong Kong's universities by network agents, institutional arrangements, and brain circulation to recruit and retain international scholars and scientists. While this has strengthened capacity, it cannot be sustained without indigenous academic leadership to ensure that globalization is anchored in local culture. The article makes the case that the Hong Kong model already studied by research universities on the Chinese mainland, is generalizable as a cosmopolitan model for developing countries. (Contains 7 tables.)