Based on the hypothesis that export and innovation are strictly complementary to the increase of enterprise performance, this paper takes Chinese industrial enterprises from 2005 to 2007 as the research object to test the marginal increasing effect of export and innovation on the increase of enterprise performance.It is found that a single innovation behavior can improve the growth rate of sales revenue and total factor productivity, but there is still a “productivity paradox” in a single export behavior. Exports and innovations have a strict complementary relationship in improving the total factor productivity of full-sample firms, and this relationship has passed the test in small state-owned, private and collective enterprises.The complementary relationship between export and innovation behavior is not shown in improving the sales revenue of the whole sample of enterprises, but only in state-owned and private enterprises.The results show that the implementation of export and innovation activities by state-owned enterprises and private enterprises can improve enterprise performance and market competitiveness, which also provides a theoretical basis for the development and growth of private enterprises under the background of “double cycle”.