Abstract: This paper contributed to identifying two types of university-industry cooperation in which enterprises partnered with universities or research institutions of lower and higher technological potency. Empirically, the heterogeneous effects of technological potential difference on an enterprise`s technological capacity growth based on that two cooperative statuses were fully studied and further explored from the perspectives of long run and short run through mix model and individual effect model of regression with pharmaceutical university-industry invention patents during 1995-2012 in Derwent database. Results showed that enterprises` growth of technological capacity in short term significantly outweighed that in the long term. Further, as to an enterprise innovating with higher-potency universities or research institutes, the technological potential difference promoted corresponding technological growth of enterprise especially in the short term with statistical significance. Comparatively, consortia with lower-potency academic partners enabled bidirectional knowledge flows, but existence of the potential difference significantly inhibited enterprises from growing their technological capacities in the long term.