How future innovations benefit from current innovations

PurposeIn high-tech markets, innovation is always generative and continuous both within the iteration in a product's development process and throughout the upgrade of multi-generational products. Inspired by this practical phenomenon, this study aims to explore the mechanism of innovation generativity and continuity to explain how future innovations benefit from current innovations.Design/methodology/approachThe study conducted qualitative research to explore innovation generativity and continuity by investigating five electronic information enterprises. The authors employed the ambidexterity perspective to explore the research question.FindingsThe authors found innovation generativity has three dimensions: inheritance, metabolism and inspection. These three dimensions and their interactions are what forms the mechanism of innovation generativity and continuity. The authors also found many paradoxes that prompt enterprises to pursue innovation generativity and continuity, and through this innovation process, enterprises are able to attain continuous innovation.Originality/valueThis study theoretically uncovers "how" to carry out innovation generativity and continuity, as well as the antecedents and the outcome. The findings contribute to research on product innovation, continuous innovation and ambidexterity, and have implications for managers who seek to improve innovation generativity and continuity.