Innovation, in an economic context, is the introduction of new products, or production processes. Innovation, thus, is technological change. Technological change may involve improvements to non-human resources or new knowledge about how to combine resources (Ekelund & Hebert, 1993).

Technology is one of the means by which productivity may be increased within an economy, an industry, or an organization. The introduction of new technology into industries tends to lower production costs in those industries, over the long-term. Technology, thus, is indispensable with res

Genuine knowledge sets the outer limits of human potential. Ceremonial institutions, however, "encapsulate genuine knowledge, and thus the human potential, by confining the use of knowledge within the framework of the core values of the established power structure" (Junker, 1982b, p. 50). In most capitalist economies, the "real choices that our technological knowledge make possible (choices between different production and distribution systems, for example, centralized versus decentralized) have been circumscribed by, or encapsulated within, our capitalistic ideology and, in particular, by the values of self-interest, profit seeking, and laissez-faire" (Munkirs, 1985, p. 179).

The term social benefits may be used in two ways. First, social benefits may be considered to be all of the gains in welfare which are derived from a specific economic decision. Alternatively, social benefits may be viewed in a more narrow context as being only those benefits accruing to those in a society other than the decision-maker(s). In this alternative approach, social benefits are contrasted to private benefits. Social benefits, in this alternative context, are viewed as externalities, or spill-over effect.