Against the backdrop of high-quality economic development and innovation driven industrial upgrading in China, the operational performance of the alliance leader enterprises is closely related to their overall survival and development. Based on the perspective of dynamic capability theory, the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) method was used to explore the multiple concurrent causal relationships and multiple implementation paths that affect the operational performance of the alliance leader enterprise. Research has found that market perception ability, learning and absorption ability, adaptability and collaboration ability, independent innovation ability, and transformation and reconstruction ability do not individually constitute the necessary conditions for improving the operational performance of the alliance leader enterprise, but are influenced by multiple factors together to improve the operational performance of the alliance leader enterprise. The configuration path can be summarized into three effective configurations including “single capability dominant type” “dual wheel capability combination type” and “multi capability linkage type”. In the fierce market competition, in order for each alliance leader enterprise to occupy a favorable position, it is necessary to comprehensively allocate multiple capability elements and form a strong joint force for collaborative operations.