A continuum structure function (CSF) is a non-decreasing mapping from the unit hypercube to the unit interval. A B-type CSF, defined in the text, is a CSF whose behaviour is modeled by its underlying binary structures. As the measure of importance of a system component for a B-type CSF, the structural and reliability importance of a component at a system level ${alpha}$(0 < ${alpha}$ < 1) are defined and their properties are deduced.