Abstract: The high-quality development of the innovation chain revolves around driving industrial growth through technological innovation, optimizing existing industrial capacity, and promoting deep integration between technologies and industries. However, there lacks a unified understanding concerning the essential features, collaborative mechanisms, and process analysis within the context of the innovation chain, which in turn restricts its potential to unleash greater momentum in fostering new-type industrialization and expediting the emergence of novel productive forces. In response, this paper commences by systematically tracing the theoretical divisions and evolving conceptual connotations of the innovation chain. Subsequently, utilizing bibliometric analysis and qualitative methods, it decouples the core perspectives of understanding the innovation chain into three dimensions: the innovation entities, collaborative innovation, and the innovation process, thus constructing a comprehensive conceptual framework and theoretical system of the innovation chain. Moreover, amidst the inward-turning trend of global value chains, this paper thoroughly discerns the distinctive new characteristics, functional advantages, and theoretical underpinnings of the innovation chain vis-à-vis other concepts. Finally, grounded in the contemporary domestic and international context and empirical research, this paper advances a refined understanding of the essence and mechanism of the innovation chain, and further explores its practical implications for innovation entities, industries, and relevant policy formulation.