Abstract: Basic research has the characteristics of long investment cycle, low probability of success and strong spillover of results, which leads to the relative lack of incentives for enterprises to carry out basic research, limiting the generation and transformation of new knowledge for the market. How to effectively motivate enterprises to carry out basic research? Based on the annual statistical data of Zhongguancun enterprises from 2009 to 2018, this paper analyzes theoretically and empirically the driving factors for enterprises to carry out basic research from two dimensions of government and market respectively. The findings are as follows: First, government support significantly promotes enterprises to carry out basic research on the whole. When government support increases by 1%, the number of scientific and technological papers published by enterprises increases by about 0.4%. Among all kinds of government support policies, supply-side support policies such as government departments' science and technology funds and high-tech enterprises' tax reduction and exemption policies have the most significant and stable positive impact on basic research. Second, the driving effect of market on enterprise basic research needs to be further strengthened, the incentive effect of market competition effect is limited, and the promoting effect of productivity relative level is more significant. Third, by measuring the contribution degree of each influencing factor, it is found that the enterprise size has the largest contribution degree to basic research, followed by R&D subsidies and tax incentives. This study provides empirical evidence for balancing government and market forces and scientifically and effectively formulating incentive policies to encourage enterprises to carry out basic research.