In the knowledge-based economy,intellectual property (IP) has become a primary means for companies to protect innovation,gain profit,and enhance competitiveness .Particularly for high-tech entrepreneurial companies in the changing technological and business environment,managing and using IP effectively could bring them new competitive advantages,and differentiate their growth path from others .Under the background of the industrial transformation and upgrading in China,facilitating IP-based high-tech entrepreneurship becomes a national strategy . However,how to build up IP Entrepreneurship Capability (IPEC) of companies to accelerate their growth and development is still unclear to both researchers and practitioners . The existent literature has explored IP management,strategy,and capability issues from various angles,but they are mostly based on giant companies'static practices,paying little attention to the dynamic entrepreneurial process,and lacking of theoretical construction and empirical validation .This study adopted the entrepreneurial capability perspective and used the″exploration-transformation-exploitation″organizational learning theory to develop a framework,aiming to capture the key elements and characteristics of IP entrepreneurship process in high-tech firms . A multi-case study based on replication logic was conducted .Data were collected from three national high-tech firms through in-depth interviews,observations and company archives .By doing within-case analysis and cross-case comparison,three dimensions of IPEC have been identified as the capability of IPEC :acquiring,retaining and utilizing . Acquiring,consisting of internal creating and external assimilating,depicts the process of getting IP;retaining,including IP protecting and system building,refers to the process of managing IP;utilizing,including product utilizing and IP-right utilizing,involves the process of achieving and maximizing the value of IP .The three dimensions are interrelated and complementary to each other .Acquiring capability is the basis for high-tech companies' long-term growth,utilizing capability is the key process to ensure their short-term performance,and retaining capability provides supports to the other two by managing and protecting companies' knowledge assets . Lacking any one of the three would jeopardize high-tech companies' growth .Therefore,a balance is needed among the three capabilities during high-tech companies'development .In addition,by comparing our findings with the existent literature,we found that Chinese high-tech companies were different from their western counterparts in the way of utilizing the value of IP .IP owned by Chinese companies is frequently used to apply for government subsidies and awards,while licensing,cross-licensing,and trading are the major strategies employed by western companies regarding the use of IP .Possible reasons of this difference,such as legal environment and policy factors,were discussed based on the interview evidence .The theoretical contributions of this study are threefold :First,we bring the entrepreneurial capability and organizational learning theories into the field of IP management and entrepreneurship,which extends the existent understanding of this research topic .Secondly,through the multi-case study,we identify the key dimensions and characteristics of IPEC,which provides the basis for future quantitative researches .Thirdly,we uncover different patterns between Chinese and western companies in their IP entrepreneurship practices,which might be a direction for further cross-cultural comparisons . Meanwhile,our research findings also provide some guidelines for Chinese high-tech entrepreneurial companies to improve their IP practices as well as to facilitate their growth .