A serial of late transition metal complexes, which bearing Benzocyclohexaneketoarylimine ligand and named as Mt(benzocyclohexaneketoarylimino)2 {Mt(bchkai)2: Mt=Ni or Pd; bchkai=C10H8(O)CN(Ar)CH3; Ar=naphthyl or fluoryl}, have been synthesized and characterized. The molecular structures of the ligands and nickel complex have been confirmed by X-ray single-crystal analyses. The nickel complexes exhibited very high activity up to 2.7 x 10 gpolymer/molNi center dot h and palladium complexes showed high activity up to 2.3 x 105 gpolymer/molPd center dot h for norbornene (NB) homo-polymerization with tris(pentafluorophenyl)borane as cocatalyst. The four complexes were effective for copolymerization of NB and 5-norbornene-2-carboxylic acid methyl ester (NB-COOCH3) in relatively high activities (0.1-2.4 x 10 gpolymer/molMt center dot h) and produced the addition-type copolymers with relatively high molecular weights (0.5 x 10-1.2 x 10g/mol) as well as narrow molecular weight distributions (PDI < 2 for all polymers). Influences of the metals and comonomer feed content on the polymerization activity as well as on the incorporation rates (20.9-42.6%) were investigated. The achieved NB/NB-COOCH3 copolymers were confirmed to be noncrystalline, exhibited good thermal stability (Td > 400 degrees C) and showed good solubility in common organic solvents. (c) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012