University-Industry Collaboration (UIC) represents a vital pathway for cultivating high-caliber talent. However, insufficient enterprise motivation in UIC persists as a fundamental challenge in practice, significantly impacting collaboration quality and effectiveness. While this issue demands attention, related research remains in preliminary stages. Through systematic literature review and empirical investigation of UIC practices, this study employs grounded theory to analyze the inducing factors, behavioral manifestations, behavioral effects, and coping strategies associated with insufficient enterprise motivation. The findings reveal a theoretical framework comprising four major categories (inducing factors, behavioral manifestations, behavioral effects, and coping strategies) and twelve initial categories. Insufficient enterprise motivation gradually emerges through the interplay of symbiotic subject factors (such as inadequate innovation capacity and strategic planning), symbiotic environmental factors (including policy and institutional environment and market competition), and symbiotic mechanism factors (such as benefit distribution and risk-sharing mechanisms). This motivational deficiency manifests in multiple dimensions, including inadequate strategic planning, declining participation enthusiasm, lack of emotional investment, and reduced resource allocation. The behavioral effects are both significant and complex, negatively influencing enterprises' willingness to participate and decision-making processes. Countermeasures can be approached from three dimensions: enhancing symbiotic subjects, optimizing symbiotic environments, and perfecting symbiotic mechanisms. This research not only enriches the theoretical framework in the UIC field but also provides theoretical support and practical guidance for stimulating enterprise participation and improving UIC effectiveness.