sychometrics to human endeavors. The behavioral science concept of technology incorporates applications of engineering research (particularly human factors engineering), logistics related to the effective use of physical resources, and information science. Technology, thus, is the "conscious invention of ways of acting on the material world to meet our needs" (Levins, 1986, p. 12).
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 respect to growth. With respect to natural resource requirements, it is said that society is "engaged in a race between technology and the exponentially rising demand for raw materials" (Heilbronner & Thurow, 1995, p. 19). With respect to most firms, an essential resource is human capital. Advances in technology enable organizations to utilize available human capital in more productive ways. Technology assists organizations to eliminate some of the limits to their ability to grow.
Institutionalists hold that a real and important difference delineates between capitalism, a system of property rights, and technology, "the body of knowledge and tools a society has at its disposal for problem solving" (Harvey, 1994, p. 74). Capitalism is ideological and is concerned with the power relationships within a society. Capitalism, therefore, is ceremonial in nature. The ceremonial institutions of capitalism constrain the application of technology. "While the instrumental pursuit of technolo...