Browsing by Department "GSB"
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- ItemOpen AccessDo managers in South Africa manufacturing firms make optimal capital investment decisions?(2003) Gilbert, EManaging the deployment of a firm’s assets in the form of capital goods is a vital determinant of a firm’s ability to successfully compete over time. Corporate finance theory clearly prescribes a rule to ensure the optimality of these decisions: all capital investment decisions should be evaluated through the use of the net present value (NPV) rule while project specific risk should be incorporated through the adjustment of the discount rate used in the NPV analysis. This paper presents the results of a survey of the capital investment evaluation practices of South African manufacturing firms. The results indicate that the majority of firms surveyed do not use the NPV evaluation technique when making their capital investment decisions. Furthermore, those firms that do use this technique use it in combination with other, theoretically deficient (and redundant) techniques. Finally, they do not adjust for project specific risk as prescribed.
- ItemOpen AccessImplementation principles - turning intentions into outcomes(2004) Faull, N; Fleming, P; Bourne, MCompanies sometimes fail to take effective action even when they know what they should do. Recent research shows that this surprising situation is more common than one would expect. How can the track record of companies in achieving the outcomes targeted by manufacturing strategy be improved? This article proposes a set of eight principles to improve the chances of taking effective action to turn intentions into outcomes. Rooted in the literature, the principles have also surfaced in case based research and commented on in the context of international consulting activities.