Breaking through the bottleneck of key core technology has become a theory and strategic research topic for China to break the US scientific and technology blockade and realize the national rise. This paper systematically combed and summarized the key core technology research from the concept, internal structure, breakthrough path and mechanism. We find that neither the mainstream innovation theory nor technological catch-up theory for latecomer countries have literature focusing on key core technology, and the innovation research on this topic is still at an early stage in China. Therefore, there are five research gaps of key core technology, confusion of key core technologies and related concepts, lacking research on the origin problems, the unopened box of key core technologies, lacking discussion on the underlying logic of the microstructure and evolution mechanism of key core technologies, little research on the R&D path and mechanism of key core technology, limited research on macro breakthrough path and mechanism, lacking study on breakthrough mechanism of key core technology under multiple scenarios, deep influence of the mainstream innovation theory paradigm on the existing research literature. Finally, based on the gaps in existing research, this paper proposes a prospect and framework for future research, establishing key core technology breakthrough theories based on Chinese context. 

    At present, the competition of national strength increasingly shows the overall competition situation with scientific and technological competition as the core. Against the background of trade disputes between China and the United States, China is increasingly constrained by others in key basic materials, core basic components, high-end universal chips and other strategic areas. Under the current situation that China′s scientific and technological progress and industrial development are seriously threatened, it is of great practical and strategic significance to evaluate the international competition situation of key core technology for grasping the direction of tackling key problems and breaking through key core technology.In this paper, through sorting out the relationship between key core technology and high-quality core patents, the key core technology are represented by high-quality core patents, and the identification index system is constructed from three dimensions of patent technical attributes, economic attributes and legal attributes to identify key core patents. On the basis of obtaining the key core patent data, the T-SNE algorithm is innovatively introduced to mine the potential topic information in the patent text and draw the international technology competition situation map of key core technology, so as to identify the key core technology topics in the field, identify the main competitive countries and achieve the purpose of macro analysis of the competition situation in this field. At the same time, the technology gap index is constructed to quantify the size of the technology gap between China and other major competitive countries in specific technology topics, describe the technology gap between China and major competitive countries at the micro level, and evaluate China′s competitive position in specific technology topics.Firstly, this paper selects integrated circuit industry as the object to carry out empirical research. Through the identification index of key core patents, 13,116 key core patents of integrated circuit industry were finally identified. From the perspective of countries and patent ownership enterprises, this paper statistics the distribution of key core patents in the field of integrated circuit industry, and makes an overall analysis and judgment. Secondly, by drawing the competition situation map and calculating the technology gap index, the international competition situation under the specific technology topic is analyzed. The results show that the United States, Japan and South Korea occupy the main competitive position in many technical topics in the current IC field. However, China has not yet formed a technological advantage on any technical subject, and the technologies it has mastered are concentrated in the packaging and testing links，which is the downstream of the industrial value chain. In high-end manufacturing, design and other links that require a high level of production technology, China is far behind technology-leading countries.By constructing the competitive situation analysis method of key core technology, the main research conclusions of this paper include: 1) the identification method of key core technology constructed in this paper is an effective method to identify key core technology in a large number of patents, which is scientific and feasible to a certain extent. 2) The method for analyzing the competition situation of key core technology constructed in this paper changes the method for analyzing the technology competition situation using patent quantity index in previous studies. Analyzing the technological gap between China and the main competitive countries through specific numerical values can more obviously and effectively recognize the domestic and foreign competition situation, which has important guiding significance for clarifying the direction of key core technology, realizing the key core technology breakthrough and accelerating the layout of the key core technology.

Under the background of the new round of industrial transformation to the in-depth evolution, the construction of key core technology breakthrough capabilities is of great significance for improving China′s scientific and technological research system and achieving independent and controllable industrial development. This paper drew inspiration from the CBP concept in the military field to construct a "three-capabilities" model with the core dimensions of collaborative integration and agglomeration capabilities, innovation investment and transformation capabilities, and innovation resource support capabilities. It explored the construction needs of key core technology breakthrough capabilities and the interaction mechanism between the "three-capabilities". On this basis, a capacity building evaluation index system for key core technology breakthroughs was established, and the entropy weight - grey correlation projection matrix model was used to calculate the capacity demand construction status of key core technology breakthroughs in China′s IC industry from 2009 to 2020. The feasibility and effectiveness of the index system were empirically tested and the results indicated that the level of capability demand construction for breakthroughs in key core technologies in China′s IC industry is fluctuating and increasing, and the innovation investment and transformation capacity are showing an upward trend in 2019 and 2020. However, it is still necessary to strengthen the capability to collaborate, integrate, gather, and ensure innovation resources. This paper will provide practical inspiration for the capacity building needs of key core technology breakthroughs.

The breakthrough of key core technologies is a major issue that China encounters at the current stage of its development. The reasons why key core technologies are difficult to conquer, not superficially because of a comprehensive technology blockade from the developed countries, but fundamentally because of some systematic problems, including that the basic research support is insufficient; the collaborations between industry, academia and research departments are not close enough; the early market is difficult to form; and the institutional mechanism of developing key core technologies is not valid enough, and so on. Therefore, to make a breakthrough in key core technologies is not simply a technological issue, but a systemic issue. Accordingly, this study explored the breakthrough mechanism of key core technologies in the context of innovation ecosystem evolution.

As for research methods, this study explored the key core technology breakthrough mechanism by applying the exploratory dual case study method, and taking the high-end scientific instrument industry as the research subject. Two typical cases of Illumina and BGI have been selected as the samples of international leading firm and the domestic catch-up firm for a comparative analysis of the gene sequencer technology breakthroughs. The research steps are as follows: (1) The authors of this paper obtained the first-hand data and second-hand data through interviews and other means, analyzed and summarized the characteristics of research objects, event sequences, influential events, environment, organization and other factors related to time and order with the help of time axis, and divided the innovation ecosystem evolution process from the start-up stage to the prosperity stage; (2) Based on the literature research, we established a theoretical analysis framework by measuring three categories, including system structure, dynamic capabilities and value proposition, to provide guidance for data coding; (3) We also processed the open coding, axial coding and selective coding in the proceduralised grounded analysis, and made the theoretical saturation achieved when there is no new property of category identified;(4) We finally conducted a comparative analysis of two cases by vertical and horizontal comparison.

The research results are as following: (1)The innovation ecosystem is the carrier for the breakthrough of key core technology, and the innovation ecosystem promotes the key core technology breakthroughs through the evolution process of “individual reproduction, population shaping and community integration”; (2)International leading firms tend to choose the maintenance breakthrough path of “product-service-ecology”, while the domestic firms tend to choose the reverse breakthrough path of “service-product-ecology”;(3)The implementation of the key core technology breakthroughs by domestic firms usually goes through three main stages. The first stage is to develop their own innovation ecosystem within the innovation ecosystem of international leading firms. The second stage is to withdraw from the constraints of the innovation ecosystem of international leading firms and implement reverse breakthroughs upstream of the industrial chain after a critical event occurs. The third stage is to purposefully carry out ecological innovation around key core technologies, forming confrontation with international leading firms; and (4) The key core technology breakthrough process of domestic firms is often affected by four important factors, including value proposition, innovation environment, dynamic capability, and critical events.This study revealed the interactional relationships between the evolution of innovation ecosystem and the breakthroughs of key core technologies, which brings enlightenment to government policy-making and enterprise innovation practice.

This study have put forward the following suggestions: (1) The government should focus on optimizing the policy system, providing comprehensive policy supports to enterprises with the potential to make breakthroughs in key core technologies, and establish a suitable policy environment for cultivating an innovation ecosystem conducive to key core technology breakthroughs, such as promoting the first set of policies, implementing application benchmarks, industrial demonstration, and scenario development projects. (2) For the catch-up firms, it is important to recognize that the key core technology breakthrough process of the latecomers is different from the one of international leading firms. Domestic catch-up firms may follow the reverse breakthrough path of “service-product-ecology” to develop the key core technologies. In this process, domestic firms should attach importance to establishing correct value propositions, improving dynamic capabilities, and keenly paying attention to the impact of critical events.

   China′s chip industry has become one of the most prominent "strangleholding" areas in recent years. How Chinese chip enterprises break through the key core technology and establish an independent and controllable information technology industry system has become an important issue. The existing research on key core technologies (1) mainly discusses key core technologies′ connotation and development law from the technology perspective and (2) explores the key core technology breakthrough mechanism from the institutional perspective. However, they ignore the potential impact of systematic factors to a certain extent. The key core technology breakthrough is an extremely complex innovation activity, which requires cross-organizational and multi-dimensional coordination of technical and non-technical elements to form a virtuous circle.
    As an institutional arrangement formed in response to system innovation, enterprise innovation networks help enterprises integrate innovation resources and breakthrough technical barriers. Existing studies (1) mainly use resources as the intermediary to explore the impact of the characteristics of existing innovation networks on innovation results, and it believes that enterprises need to scan existing resources and opportunities to improve performance. (2) It defaults enterprises based on causal logic, by which decision-makers have rational goals, identify and find the most suitable partners, and plan the "effective" evolution of networks. However, suitable partners in the chip industry have a strong monopoly and exclusivity. It is difficult for latecomers to enter the existing network, with low knowledge acquisition and poor resource integration. In addition, key core technology breakthrough activities are long-term and uncertain, and future development is difficult to predict; the potential partners of enterprises are usually difficult to identify, which is difficult for enterprises to build networks only based on causal logic.
   The study of effectuation theory holds that in an uncertain environment, enterprises cannot make decisions based on rational goals but should follow the effectuation logic starting from a set of means as given and focusing on selecting between possible effects produced by using that set of means. This theory has more advantages in advocating value co-creation and effectively dealing with the impact of uncertainty than the causation logic characterized by "prediction and planning". Therefore, this paper attempts to introduce the effectuation theory and explore the internal law of phased breakthroughs in key core technologies of chip design based on a longitudinal case study of Loongson Technology Co., Ltd. with complete independent CPU design ability in China′s chip industry.
    The results show that: (1) breaking through the key core technology of "function-reliability-performance-compatibility", enterprises are facing a more complex and changeable network environment. Their resource stock and uncertain environment will affect their decision logic of networking and technological breakthrough. In this process, the decision logic evolves dynamically: in the early stage, it is mainly based on the effectuation logic, and in the later stage, it is based on the "causation-effectuation" comprehensive logic. (2) The construction and evolution of enterprise innovation networks go through a "leveraging-driving-linking" mechanism to integrate resources to break through the key core technology.
    The theoretical contribution lies in two aspects. Firstly, this paper introduces the effectuation theory, adapts the construction and evolution of enterprise networks to the antecedents of enterprise decision-making, summarizes the mechanism of enterprise to build innovation networks, and excavates the dynamic source of enterprise innovation network evolution. Secondly, based on the network perspective, this paper puts forward the mechanism model of enterprise innovation network construction in key core technology breakthroughs, provides a new interpretation framework for technology breakthroughs and promotes the relevant research.
    This paper has some practical managerial implications. (1) Enterprises should use the "leveraging-driving-linking" mechanism to build an innovation network, integrate the resources required for key core technology breakthroughs, take advantage of various opportunities brought by external uncertainty, and take technological innovation initiatives. (2) The government should also increase investment in industrial generic technological innovation activities and the construction of industrial network systems, strengthen policy support on the demand side, and provide enterprises with opportunities for trial-and-error iteration to improve their independent innovation capability.

   China′s manufacturing industry has the most complete industrial system in the world at present, ranking first in the world in terms of scale for 10 consecutive years. However, China′s manufacturing industry is still large but not strong, and key core technologies are "stuck", which has become the key to hinder China from becoming a world power in science and technology. Key core technologies are important tools of our country, which are of great significance for promoting the high-quality development of China′s economy and ensuring national security. Besides, cultivating key core technology innovation capabilities is the key to achieving breakthroughs in key core technologies. Therefore, under the urgent situation, how leading manufacturing companies cultivate continuous innovation capabilities in key core technologies has become an important issue that needs to be solved urgently. 
    At present, the research on key core technologies is still in its infancy. The existing literature is mainly limited to newspapers, news, and policy documents, while rigorous academic research is obviously insufficient. In particular, there is a lack of rigorous academic research on how companies can cultivate continuous innovation capabilities in key core technologies. Besides, although the research on the cultivation of enterprise innovation capacities has made some progress, these studies mainly focus on the cultivation of firm technological innovation capacities, independent innovation capacities, and strategic innovation capacities. Moreover, there is insufficient discussion on the cultivation of enterprise continuous innovation capacities, especially the lack of in-depth analysis of continuous innovation capabilities in key core technologies of leading manufacturing companies. In general, the existing research has not been able to answer the question of how Chinese leading manufacturing companies cultivate continuous innovation capabilities in key core technologies.
   TBEA has continuously achieved major breakthroughs in key core technologies by cultivating continuous innovation capabilities in key core technologies, and has continuously broken foreign technology blockades and market monopolies. Therefore, this study takes TBEA as the example, and deeply explores the key elements of leading manufacturing companies to cultivate continuous innovation capacities in key core technologies. This study reveals that continuous investment in independent innovation, building the in-depth integration of industry-university-research innovation consortium, establishing firm independent innovation platforms, integrating key technologies and innovation resources in the industry through continuous restructuring and mergers & acquisitions, gathering and integrating global scientific & technological innovation resources and integrating into the global innovation chain and industrial chain, and introducing as well as training leading talents in science and technology continuously are key elements to cultivate continuous innovation capacities in key core technologies. Meanwhile, the support of the central and local governments at all levels is the important driving force to cultivate continuous innovation capabilities in key core technologies. 
    This study mainly makes three theoretical contributions: First, this study deeply explores the continuous innovation capabilities in key core technologies of leading manufacturing companies, thus enriching the previous research on firm innovation capabilities. Second, this study specifically investigates the key elements of cultivating the continuous innovation capacities in key core technologies, thus extending the previous research on key core technologies. Third, this research discusses the continuous innovation of leading manufacturing companies, thereby adding to the previous research on enterprise continuous innovation. Besides, this study provides enlightenment for leading manufacturing companies′ practice of breaking through key core technologies, and provides policy implications for the Chinese government.

  In the context of US-China technological decoupling and the dual circulation strategy, it is significant for companies to achieve rapid breakthroughs in key core technologies of chip design. The complementary assets linking capacity, which accelerates the speed of technology absorption, is one method for companies to rapidly overcome key technological challenges. This study employed a longitudinal single-case study method, with Apple′s chip business as the research subject. From the perspective of complementary assets linking ability and absorption speed, the core contribution of this research is the proposal to introduce the "complementary asset linking ability---absorption speed---key core technology rapid breakthrough" theoretical model. This model defines complementary asset linking ability as the capacity of a company to link new technology R&D innovation and its commercialization across organizations, thus dividing key core technology breakthroughs into "self-developed" and "introduced" complementary asset linking modes, and revealing the breakthrough path of "technology-product-ecosystem". The study also found that the main reasons for the successful rapid linking of complementary assets by chip design companies include the enabling and influencing of partnership relationships, seizing of opportunity windows (technology, market, and ecosystem), and the distinction and linking strategies of types of complementary assets. Finally, this paper discussed from a "time" perspective how introducing complementary assets linking capacity accelerates the resolution of key core technology breakthroughs, revealing the dynamic match between the strength of complementary asset linking capacity and the speed of absorption, thereby fostering a scholarly dialogue between the fields of complementary asset linking capacity and absorption speed.

The breakthrough of core and key technologies by latecomer enterprises is crucial for achieving national technological self-reliance and industrial upgrading. This study adopted a longitudinal single-case research approach, and examined Changan Auto's engine technology to construct an evolutionary process model of breakthrough paths for core and key technologies in latecomer enterprises. The research findings are as follows: (1) the impetus for core and key technology breakthroughs stems from a dual-driven mechanism that combines exogenous and endogenous factors; (2) the breakthrough path follows an "explicit technology traction-implicit capability leap" model, exhibiting a four-stage dynamic evolutionary goal; (3) explicit technological practices evolve progressively through the sequence of "extensive search-knowledge absorption-deep accumulation-knowledge creation-system integration-local leadership", driving the implicit capability system to achieve hierarchical leaps from "technical foundation building-innovation capability cultivation-integration capability construction-global competitiveness ascension"; (4) technological innovation capability develops following the logic of "knowledge absorption-deep accumulation-knowledge creation", establishing latecomer enterprises' dual momentum for outward breakthroughs and inward refinement; and (5) the "explicit technology-implicit capability" breakthrough model triggers bidirectional restructuring between "firm-market" systems, organizationally shifting practices from imitation and adaptation to standard-setting while structurally disrupting conventional market architectures, manifesting a "creative destruction" dynamic. This study will offer latecomers a practical paradigm for breaking the chokehold on core and key technologies, thus forging their own autonomous innovation chains, and facilitating the micro-level upgrading of industrial value chains.