What's the ROI for This Article?

Return on investment is a pretty fundamental goal of any business endeavor. Yet the term didn't really gain much currency until the mid-1960s. As this Google Ngram chart shows, since then, the term "ROI" has greatly increased in popularity.

Why? It's clear that the idea of getting a return on one's investment was always been a topic of conversation among the business-minded. But it used to be called something else: Return on Capital. In fact, this Ngram shows that ROI took off just as ROC was waning. Meanwhile, a more down-to-earth description of ROI, "bang for your buck," appeared to rise in popularity with ROI. Read more...