Abstract: Small and medium-sized enterprises play an irreplaceable role in promoting regional industrial upgrading and building a modern industrial chain system. However, within the industrial cluster, the process of small and medium-sized enterprises integrating into the chain faces practical challenges such as insufficient embedding depth, weak collaboration ability, and fragmented institutional support. Based on the theory of structural embedding, this article combines the perspectives of platform governance and institutional restructuring, and systematically analyzes the internal logic, path evolution, and hierarchical mechanism of small and medium-sized enterprises in achieving integration into the industrial cluster. On this basis, this article explores a combination of differentiated policy tools to promote the deep embedding of small and medium-sized enterprises in the core links of the industrial chain, aso as to achieve a leap from off-chain participation to on-chain collaboration. This article helps to deepen the understanding of the mechanism of small and medium-sized enterprises embedding into modern industrial chains, providing theoretical basis and policy inspiration for improving the institutional environment of industrial clusters and promoting high-quality economic development.
