Abstract: Complementary assets play an important role in an enterprise's core technological competence, but the process mechanism of how complementary assets promote core technological competence is unclear. Based on the process perspective of technological catch-up for latecomer firms, through a longitudinal case study of Haitian(2001-2018), this research gets some key findings. In the process of technological catch-up, there is a dynamic change in the dominant mechanism of complementary assets on core technological competence for latecomer enterprises. In the initial stage, complementary assets promote the imitative competence of latecomers through the buffer mechanism. In the transformation stage, complementary assets promote the improved competence of latecomers through the pipe mechanism. In the surpassing stage, complementary assets promote the innovative competence of latecomers through the prism mechanism. This research not only fills the gap in the dynamic mechanism of core technological competence by complementary assets from a process perspective, but also expands the technology catch-up theory from a perspective of complementary assets.

Key words: complementary assets, core technological competence, latecomer firms, technological catch-up