Abstract: Constructing IUR (industry-university-research) collaborative innovation systems with the enterprise as the mainstay is not only the key to improve enterprise independent innovation capacities, but also the strategic requirement to construct the innovation-oriented country. Since 2006, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council of the People’s Republic of China have repeatedly emphasized the need to accelerate the construction of technological innovation systems with enterprises as the mainstay, market as the orientation, and the combination of industries, universities, and research institutes, starting from the overall strategic goal of improving enterprise independent innovation capabilities and building the innovative country. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to implement the strategy of innovation-driven development, and the Third Plenary Session of the 18th National Congress clarified the requirement to establish IUR collaborative innovation systems. The recent central government work report and the “13th Five-Year Plan” proposal further required to strengthen the subject status and leading role of enterprises in technological innovation and promote the construction of IUR collaborative innovation systems with enterprises as the mainstay. Therefore, IUR collaborative innovation systems with enterprises as the mainstay have become a major practical issue in China.
Although previous research on IUR collaborative innovation has achieved fruitful results, existing literature on IUR collaborative innovation systems with enterprises as the mainstay is still very limited. So far, it has not been answered how Chinese enterprises construct an effective IUR collaborative innovation management system to improve independent innovation capacities and innovation performance. First, extant classical theories concerning IURcollaborative innovation are all developed in western countries, like the Triple Helix Theory, Model 2, and National Innovation System Theory, and ignore China’s national conditions. Besides, these classical theories are mainly based on the macro level, and do not investigate the mechanism at the micro level. Second, extant research on collaborative innovation generally adopts the systematic analysis. The representative viewpoint is that the key to collaborative innovation is to form the multi-agent collaborative interaction network innovation model with universities, enterprises, and research institutes as core elements, and with the government, financial institutions, intermediary organizations, innovation platforms, and non-profits as auxiliary elements. However, this view mainly focuses on the macro-association and interaction between multi-subjects, regards the enterprise as one point, and does not highlight the leading role of enterprises, thus hardly opening the "black box" of IUR collaborative innovation within enterprises. Third, only a few studies have discussed the IUR collaborative innovation with enterprises as the mainstay, and they have not touched on how enterprises play the leading role in IUR collaborative innovation to enhance their own innovation performance.
Besides, related studies regard enterprises as passive recipients of government policies, ignoring the fact that enterprises can actively seek government support when they lead the IUR collaborative innovation. While the overall pattern of China’s technological innovation systems with enterprises as the mainstay, market as the orientation, and the combination of industries, universities and research institutes is taking shape, and some research have recently explored enterprise technology innovation systems from the macro and micro levels respectively, scholars have not integrated technological innovation systems at the macro and micro levels and conducted cross-layer analysis. Based on China’s transitional economy context, this study clarifies the connotation of the IUR collaborative innovation with enterprises as the mainstay, uses cross-layer analysis to integrate the macro level’s national innovation system and the micro level’s enterprise technology innovation system, and puts forward the management framework of IUR collaborative innovation with enterprises as the mainstay.
The management framework is a two-ring system consisting of four external systems and seven internal modules driven by the government and the market. From the outer ring of the system: First, the dual role of the government and the market is the fundamental driving force for collaborative innovation with the enterprise as the mainstay. Second, under the influence of the “dual system” of the government and the market, the government’s science and technology policy support system, various types of science and technology park system, industrial cluster system, and the financial institutions, intermediary institutions, and social resources system constitute the four external systems of the framework, which jointly promote the development of IUR collaboration innovation with the enterprise as the mainstay. At the same time, enterprises can actively seek the support from the four external systems, thus forming an interactive effect with them. From the inner ring of the system: First, entrepreneurs play a leading role in the whole process of IUR collaborative innovation. Second, entrepreneurs can develop reasonable and effective innovative strategic planning to meet the needs of the country, market, and technology through effective strategic leadership, effectively manage IUR alliance portfolios and IUR project portfolios with enterprises as the mainstay, and ultimately enhance firm independent innovation capability and innovation performance. In addition, firm independent innovation capabilities and innovation performance results can provide feedback and corrections for entrepreneurs through the evaluation, improvement and innovation feedback system, so that the whole system becomes an open and dynamic feedback management system.
This study makes several contributions as followed. First, this study puts forward the management framework of IUR collaborative innovation with enterprises as the mainstay, thus opening the black box of enterprises’ leading IUR collaborative innovation to achieve the independent innovation capacity and technology innovation performance under the interaction of internal and external environments. Second, this study emphasizes the leading role of enterprises in IUR collaborative innovation, and points out that enterprises can play their own dynamic role to win the support of external resources from the government’s science and technology policy support system, various types of science and technology park system, industrial cluster system, and the financial institutions, intermediary institutions, and social resources system, thus expanding existing research on IUR collaborative innovation. Third, this study explores the actual situation of IUR collaborative innovation in the context of China’s transition, and points out that the fundamental driving force for IUR collaborative innovation with enterprises as the mainstay is the dual roles of the government and the market. Further, this study provides some enlightenment for the practice of IUR collaborative innovation.

Key words: IUR, collaborative innovation, enterprise mainstay, management system