Abstract:At present, the relationship between the R D input for enterprise and the innovation performance is controversial in the academic circle, and the reason for the controversy is still in doubt.Drawing on the enterprise network theory (ENT), the article introduces the network structure of the team engaged in R D, attempting to explain why the outcome of these studies is different from each other, i.e. why the controversy exists. Therefore, we select 157 automobile companies as samples to carry out empirical analysis and discover the R D input and innovation performance is positively related. When the R D team own high EI index ,low density or low centralization, the R D input and innovation performance are not obvious positive correlation; while when the R D team own low EI index ,high density or high centralization , the positive correlation between the R D investment and innovation performance significantly enhanced.