Our understanding of how markets operate is based on the traditional assumption of diminishing returns: products or companies that get ahead in a market eventually run into limitations. But, in this century, Western economies have undergone a transformation from bulk-material manufacturing to the design and use of technology-from processing resources to processing information, from the application of raw energy to the application of ideas. As this shift in production has occurred, the mechanisms that determine economic behavior have also shifted-from diminishing returns to increasing returns.