Innovation is an important strategic tool for enterprises to gain competitive advantages in intense market competition. With the rise of open innovation and open enterprises, industry-university-research collaboration has become an effective means for enterprises to acquire external innovation resources and thereby establish competitive advantages. Therefore, exploring the relationship between industry-university-research institution collaboration and enterprise innovation performance is of great significance for both academia and specific business practices. This study aims to explore the correlation between industry-university-research collaboration and enterprise innovation performance, as well as the mechanisms between the two, with a focus on the mediating effect of knowledge absorptive capacity and the moderating effects of executives' academic background and government innovation subsidies on this relationship.#br#To achieve this goal, the research methodology involves a comprehensive review of existing literature in the field, followed by an empirical analysis of all of China's A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2021. Drawing on transaction cost theory, resource-based theory, and upper echelon theory, this study not only explores the direct impact of industry-university-research collaboration on enterprise innovation performance, but also investigates the indirect impact mechanism of industry-university-research collaboration on enterprise innovation performance from the perspective of knowledge absorptive capacity. Additionally, two different levels of moderating variables, namely the academic background of senior executives and government innovation subsidies, are incorporated into the research framework. In particular, the variable of industry-university-research collaboration is divided into two dimensions of collaboration breadth and collaboration depth in the empirical processes, and regression analysis is conducted separately for each dimension.#br#It is found that, firstly, there is a significant positive correlation between industry-university-research collaboration and enterprise innovation performance. This suggests that under certain conditions, an increase in the breadth or depth of industry-university-research collaboration leads to an improvement in enterprise innovation performance. Secondly, the academic background of executives can positively moderate the positive impact of industry-university-research collaboration on enterprise innovation performance. This implies that an increase in the proportion of executives with an academic background strengthens the promoting effect of industry-university-research collaboration on enterprise innovation performance. Additionally, the study confirms that government innovation subsidies can also positively moderate the positive correlation between industry-university-research collaboration and enterprise innovation performance, and an increase in government innovation subsidies enhances the promoting effect of industry-university-research collaboration on enterprise innovation performance. Furthermore, after conducting regression analysis on the model, the study also performed robustness tests and heterogeneity analysis. In particular, by using the median of enterprise innovation performance as a threshold, heterogeneous analysis is conducted on two sub-samples. The final test results present significant differences, indicating that innovation performance is related to factors such as the level of independent R&D and resource advantages, for they can affect enterprises' willingness and ability to participate in industry-university-research practices.#br#The above analysis reveals that industry-university-research collaboration plays a crucial role in driving enterprise innovation performance. By engaging in industry-university-research collaboration practices, enterprises are able to conduct innovation activities at lower costs and risks, and moreover, they can leverage the technological advantages of universities and research institutes for research and development. Simultaneously, through the process of industry-university-research collaboration, enterprises can benefit from knowledge spillover from universities and research institutes, expand their knowledge breadth, enhance their research and development capabilities, and improve their innovation performance. Furthermore, the study suggests that by improving their own knowledge absorption capacity, enterprises' participation in industry-university-research collaboration can enhance their sensitivity to environmental changes and independent innovation ability to improve innovation performance. Besides,it also highlights the significant impact of executives' academic backgrounds and government innovation subsidies on moderating this relationship. The conclusions can serve as reference for enterprises seeking to enhance their innovation performance through industry-university-research collaboration.#br#