The transition from the old to the new generation of a product is important for various sectors. This type of innovation is often challenging due to the diminishing product lifecycles and rapid technological obsolescence. Despite the managerial relevance, little is known about what abilities of the firms allow them to achieve superior generational product innovativeness. To enrich our understanding, the present study reports on evidence from 201 UK firms conducting generational product innovations. The results reveal that intentional cannibalization significantly enhances decision-making agility. This agility is crucial for innovation, particularly under high technological turbulence, a context that requires rapid adaptation and change. Generally, the findings make a useful contribution to product innovation research (specifically in generational transitions) and add to the emerging research on the role of agility in organizations. Moreover, they suggest managerial propositions regarding how firms can achieve superior generational innovativeness. Finally, they point at future research propositions.@en

In certain sectors (e.g., consumer electronics), products are developed as part of successive product transitions where the new generation of the product replaces its predecessor. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first that takes a marketing perspective to examine the drivers and performance outcomes of a firm’s decision to determine generational product innovativeness (GPI). Empirical results from 201 generational product transitions in the UK show that a) market and technology sensing capabilities positively influence GPI, and b) GPI has an inverted U-shaped impact on generational product performance. The results contribute to the product innovation literature, which sparsely studied generational product transitions. The paper also provides managerial implications on how firms can enjoy superior generational product performance by leveraging outside-in capabilities and optimally managing GPI.@en