In order to bridge the theoretical gap that current academic research studies on the transformation of scientific research achievements in universities concentrate on developed economies, while they fail to clarify whether and how the achievements can be translated into economic performance. We used the panel data of universities directly under the ministry of education to analyse the functional mechanism and transformation path between the quantity, quality and economic performance of achievements. The results showed that the quantity and quality of achievements are positively correlated, and the quality of achievements is positively correlated with economic performance. Meanwhile, the quality of achievements mediates rather than moderates the quantity of achievements and economic performance. Moreover, the role of the Chinese government in guiding the achievements of key universities to change from quantity-orientation to quality-orientation is not ideal. Furthermore, the mediating effect of basic research intensity and the moderating effect of S&T service intensity between the quality of achievements and economic performance are only established at the university level, but not at the provincial level. Therefore, the government should establish diversified evaluation criteria when evaluating the innovation performance of researchers and the transformation performance of achievements in universities.