Thus, mediated moderation required a multistep procedure [23] that tested whether the following results were observed: (1) CE significantly impacted product innovation performance, (2) the effect of IT capabilities on CE was significantly moderated by competitive intensity, (3) the effect of this moderating term on product innovation performance was significantly mediated by CE, and (4) the direct effect of CE decreased in magnitude in the presence of the interaction term. The analysis showed that steps 1 and 2 received empirical support. Next, a mediation test (Sobel test statistic 2.06 at p _ .05) confirmed that CE significantly mediated the effect of the interaction term on product innovation performance