The institute emerged from the Department of Industrial Economics and was founded in 1994 on the basis of the Industrial Economics major established by the famous Chinese economist Huang Dehong. In 2006, the Institute of Industrial Economics was formally established, and the Guangdong Industry Research Institute decided to set up its affiliated Research Institute of Industrial Economics at the Jinan University Institute of Industrial Economics.

The Institute of Industrial Economics is dedicated to Guangdong economic development. It has made great achievements in industrial competitiveness research, industrial development and planning research, innovation policy, enterprise development strategy, etc. Since 2006 the institute has undertaken more than 60 research projects entrusted by provincial and municipal governments, organizations and enterprises. Among them, the General Research Report on the Industrial Competitiveness of Guangdong Province was deeply appreciated by the leadership of Guangdong Provincial CPC Committee and Provincial Government.

The Institute of Industrial Economics makes the fullest to enhance the quality of teaching. In recent years, numerous well-known international and domestic scholars, from schools including Boston University and Monash University in Australia, have been invited to teach advanced professional courses and give academic lectures. Moreover, the Institute of Industrial Economics has established successive post-graduate and doctoral study programs, joint-training cooperation systems for domestic and overseas scholars, and the Huang Dehong Scholarship.