A business owner must decide whether to improve the benefits she offers her employees. She calculates that improving benefits will cost the company an extra $1,000 per employee each year. This could prevent her from hiring as many new employees as she would like over the next few years. On the other hand, better benefits will help her hire more qualified employees who will stay with the company for longer. The extra $1,000 per employee the business would have to spend on added benefits is an example of a(n) .