We controlled for firm age, firm size, ownership structure, industry type, and past performance because of their potential effects on CE and product innovation performance. We included firm age as a control variable because older firms can enjoy an experience-based advantage that enables them to sustain growth better than younger firms. We measured firm age using the number of years the firm existed. We included firm size because larger firms may have more resources than smaller firms, which may affect the relationship between CE and product innovation performance. We utilized a categorical description of the firm size following Judge and Elenkov