The need to establish measurement schemes (metrics) that allow for evidence of effects and impacts of economic policy actions or social investment actions is rapidly evolving in the creation of concepts, techniques and tools, as well as in its implementation with a view to planning, improvement and policy analysis public. Innovation as an applied concept is not alien to the establishment of indicators, given the need to understand the effects on social welfare of action innovative, so it is reasonable that there should be a certain inclination towards the construction and use of performance metrics and social returns on investment, as innovative action implies, in addition to effects, investment budgets, unmet needs, needs for improvement in productivity and social change. Despite the tendency to parameterize and measure the effects of public or private actions on social welfare, the development and implementation of the concept of impact is incipient in the case of application in the field of innovation. For the In the light of the above motivation, this paper takes a preliminary approach to the concept of impact of innovation, since the innovative process has real effects on social welfare, although rarely quantifiable or measurable in terms of well-being, because of the difficulty of establish its cumulative effects.