Abstract: Commercial aircraft is recognized as the “crown” of the advanced equipment manufacturing industry, which embodies the comprehensive strength of a country. However, how enterprises in late-developing countries can realize the technological catch-up of such complex products is still under-explored. From the perspective of complex system management, we explore the technology catch-up model of complex products and draw two conclusions: (1) Using complex system thinking, we analyze the complex specific problems and characteristics of commercial aircraft technology catch-up; (2) Using the holism and reductionism of complex system, we construct a technology catch-up model oriented to solving key problems. Our study contributes theoretically by: (1) introducing complex system thinking into the research field of advanced equipment technology catch-up for the first time; and (2) extracting the characteristics and models of complex product technology catch-up. Furthermore, our study has great enlightenment to the technological innovation of China's complex product enterprises.

Key words: complex system management, commercial aircraft, technological catch-up, advanced equipment products