Innovation is crucial for achieving high-level self-reliance and accelerating the development of new productive forces in the latest development stage. However, due to the high risk and long-term nature of innovation, not all managers, as the leaders of enterprises, can maintain the persistence required for innovation. There is limited research systematically revealing how managerial myopia affects ambidextrous innovation in enterprises. Based on the upper echelons theory and from the perspective of ambidextrous innovation, a panel dataset of 2139 A-share listed manufacturing companies in China from 2007 to 2020 was constructed. Analysis techniques were used to build an index of managerial myopia. The impact of intrinsic managerial myopia on the performance of exploratory and exploitative innovation is investigated empirically. Additionally, the mediating role of ambidextrous innovation investment and the contingent influence of managerial incentives on this process were analyzed. The empirical results demonstrated that managerial myopia significantly negatively impacts the performance of both exploratory and exploitative innovation. Managerial myopia inhibits the investment in exploratory and exploitative innovation, thereby suppressing the output of ambidextrous innovation performance. Equity incentives mitigate the negative impact of managerial myopia on ambidextrous innovation performance, while compensation incentives amplify the negative impact of managerial myopia on exploratory innovation performance and mitigate the negative impact on exploitative innovation performance. The findings of the research extend the analysis of the behavioral consequences and mechanisms of managerial myopia on enterprise innovation. It would provide important theoretical and practical implications for further optimizing enterprise innovation governance mechanisms, incentivizing and guiding enterprises to enhance their independent innovation capabilities, and thereby accelerating the formation and development of new productive forces.