Abstract: The new context formed by economic globalization and the emergence of new technologies has not only expanded but also extended the low-end breakthrough directions and paths of enterprises in “catch-up” countries. Based on the systematic review of relevant research at home and abroad, it can be found that the current analysis mostly make theoretical deduction from the macro level in order to answer how to climb the global value chain. Several researches identified the main influence factors and the potential climbing paths of low-end breakthrough, and the others carry out empirical test on several industries or Original Entrusted Manufacture (OEM) enterprises. However, these studies failed to systematically interpret that how do Chinese enterprises in the post-development situation get rid of being “captured” or “locked” in the low-end aspects from the micro level of breakthrough mechanism. This study is not limited to the low-end breakthrough of OEM enterprises in the global value chain (GVC), but from the perspective of two different product types: simple products and complex products at the micro level. This study conducts a longitudinal case study between Wanxiang Group which is a representative enterprise in the field of auto parts deeply embedded in GVC and China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation (CRRC) Dalian Co., Ltd. which is the main enterprise of locomotive industry’s national value chain (NVC), thus comparing the similarities and differences of low-end breakthrough process between enterprises started with simple products and complex products in different context. Finally, the research found that the simple product and the complex product enterprises have diverse emphasis on the low-end breakthrough process owing to the different embedded context which is reflected in the governance structure and target orientation of the global or national value chain , but they all conform to the rule of definition extension and evolution—“accepted definition→cooperation definition→active definition”, so that by alternating the position on both vertical chain and horizontal chain, the risk of being locked in the low value-added and low-end technology aspects is eliminated. Therefore, the compound path under the dual dimension is the key to the low-end breakthrough of Chinese manufacturing enterprises. The research conclusion obtains the path selection and evolution rules of low-end breakthrough from the mechanism level, which is more universal and explanatory for “catch-up” countries’ manufacturing enterprises with different product types in complex transition context.

Key words: simple product, complex product, low-end breakthrough, dual dimension, compound paths