Abstract:The potential roles of the state-owned enterprises in Chinese industry-academia-research triangle were deeply and systematically studied to promote industry innovations, especially the innovations of the core technology. Through a case comparisons, the analysis found that in the industry-academia-research system in the developed countries, especially US, large enterprises and intermediary organizations can merge the gap of information misconnection, reduce the transaction costs and provide the “patient capital”. In contrast, Chinese universities and research institutes, small and medium-sized enterprises, large enterprises and intermediary institutions all encountered challenges to fulfill the functions aforementioned. Now that it might be difficult for universities to lead the industry-academia-research system, the state-owned enterprises can be an alternative to break the situation. The comparative advantages of the state-owned enterprises make them possible to establish partnerships with colleges and universities to make up for the lack of functions in the industry-academia-research system, thus to promote the effective connection between market demand and innovation entities, and to promote the research of core technologies and build a new nationwide system.