Abstract: By means of inductive and deductive methods, this paper explores the process and mechanism of how core firm’s collaborative capability stimulates proactive behavior of innovation network to achieve the network’s continuous upgrading, and then leads to the sustainable development of the related industries on the basis of the the perspective of co-evolution. The results show that there has positive relevance among core firm’s collaborative capability, innovation network and industry development, and the co-evolution path of them is determined by the strategic orientation of core enterprise. Concretely and specifically, the core firm with adaptability strategy presents inverted-U-shaped co-evolution path, the core firm with stability strategy presents inverted-W-shaped co-evolution path,and the core firm with change strategy presents up-S-shaped co-evolution path. This paper contributes to uncover the black box of how the core firm’s innovation network upgrades and how it then causes the industry development .

Key words: core firm, collaborative capability, innovation network, co-evolution