[WEB4LIB] Library Web site ROI

[Edward Wigg]

At 02:11 PM 9/26/98 -0700, Gay Lepkey <glepkey at julian.uwo.ca>
 wrote:
>...
>If, as current management theory would have it (eg. Hallows.
>Information systems project management. c1998), intangible benefits are
>not benefits at all, then on what basis are ROI / C-B analyses of NPO
>Web sites to be arrived at?  According to Hallows, a benefit either
>saves money for an organization or generates profits.
>....

As I see it there are only a few possibilities:

1) You are misrepresenting (misinterpreting?) Hallows/management theory.
2) Hallows is talking through his hat.
3) Management theory is in sore trouble.
4) A combination of any or all of the previous possibilities.

My degree in economics has been gathering dust for a while, so I make no
claims of cutting edge knowledge of the discipline, but _even_ economists
know that not all benefits come with a dollar sign already attached (though
it might in theory be possible to attach a dollar value to a specific
intangible for a specific person on a specific occasion - think of what
someone will pay to go on vacation to a place with pretty views and
sunsets). People (and organizations as groups of people) tend to try to
maximize Utility, which may or may not equate to maximizing dollars.
Intangible benefits can enhance Utility as readily as tangible ones.

It may well be that management theorists are merely encouraging us to
analyze costs and benefits carefully and are showing a healthy skepticism
about what value an intangible benefit actually brings to an organization,
but to insist on profit as the only measurement of benefit for a non-profit
organization is oxymoronic.

Edward