Capital Budgeting Techniques in Asset Investments

Capital Budgeting Techniques in Asset Investments Title: In practice asset investments are determined by using capital budgeting techniques – discuss using examples in real organisations Capital budgeting decisions are important because they affect the future earnings and growth of a company. Large amount of academic research has been devoted to establishing methods in asset investments. Most of these relate to Capital Asset Pricing Model, Net Present Value and Internal Rate of Return. But the question still remains how closely the above prescribed methods are followed in the real world. This paper looks at the financial methods used by small and large organisations in investment decision making and analyses whether there is any difference due to firm size. It also looks at whether there is any difference in the methods used during stable and unstable business environment. Net present value and Capital Asset Pricing Model are the two most common methods prescribed by academics for investment valuation. Over the years the above methods have become more common, yet various surveys find that the large companies use these methods more frequently than smaller firms. Small firms rely more on payback method for investment decision making. They also rely on their past experiences to decide which projects to take. During uncertain and crisis times, managements rely more on their qualitative analysis than on quantitative analysis to make investment judgments even though they carry out more financial analysis. A) Comparison of small and large business practices in relation to investment decisions Discounted cash flow methods are most common financial techniques mentioned in academic literature for investment decision making. Graham and Harvey (2001) carried out a survey of 392 CFOs in USA on capital budgeting techniques. They reported that the asset investment decision making relied heavily on the net present value technique in large firms. On the other hand, smaller firms were more likely to rely on payback method. Their survey and analysis clearly showed that firm-size was a major factor in deciding the corporate finance practices employed in investment decisions. Larger firms were more inclined to use Capital Asset Pricing Model than smaller firms. In case of smaller firms, CFOs used payback period method as frequently as NPV or IRR methods. They also noted that the dividend paying firms are more likely to use NPV and IRR methods as compared to non-dividend paying companies. Since dividend paying companies are on average larger than non-dividend paying companies, it shows that larger companies rely more on NPV and IRR for asset investment decision making. While Graham and Harvey (2001) study showed the growing importance of NPV as an asset investment decision tool, it also showed that the payback method is the third most likely used method in asset investment decision making process. Because of no time value of money in payback method, academics don’t use it for capital budget method. Buts its prevalence and third ranking shows that the companies still rely on relatively incorrect method for investment decision making. Brounen, Jong and Koedijk (2004) extended Graham and Harvey (2001) study to Europe. They surveyed 313 firms in UK, the Netherlands, Germany and France to analyse the practical applicability of the net present value and capital asset pricing models in the business world. Like results in Graham and Harvey (2001) study, their main observation was that the financial management practices are determined mainly by the size of a firm. But they found some differences in financial practices between companies based in USA and Europe. On capital budgeting, Brounen, Jong and Koedijk (2004) found that European firms are more likely to rely on payback method for investment decision making. While the payback method was third preference in the US, it was number one preference among European firms. Brounen, Jong and Koedijk (2004) noted that smaller firms use cost of capital as told by their investors. They don’t have robust resources in place neither internally nor resources to procure external services for cost of capital calculation. Absence of proper cost of capital measurement results in higher use of payback method. While in case of US companies, the use of NPV and payback method was equally distributed in the small firm segment, the use of payback was more prevalent in European smaller firms. This difference could be due to the difference in sample size of American and European firms. 51% of American firms in Graham and Harvey (2001) survey had sales of more than $500 million US dollars. The corresponding figure in Brounen, Jong and Koedijk (2004) survey is less than 25%. As the average size of European firms in Brounen, Jong and Koedijk (2004) survey was smaller than average size of American firms in Graham and Harvey (2001) survey, it is more likely that smaller firms use payback more than NPV in asset investment decision making. Ekanem (2005) surveyed 8 small enterprises in the printing and clothing sectors in UK to analyse their investment decision making process. His results showed that owner-managers of small firms rely more on their previous experience than formal evaluation to make investment decisions. He also lists the barriers faced by the small firms in investment decision making that result in owners’ reliance more on their experiences rather than formal evaluation. He cites absence of resources, both financial and managerial, to carry out proper financial evaluation and concentration of decision making in hands of one or two people as the major reasons behind their focus on past experiences. Ekanem (2005) also mentions the uncertain and risky nature of small enterprises as one of the reasons for relying more on experience. Small firms may run out of cash quickly due to sudden change in environment before they could see positive cash inflows from a project and hence many times ignore project s with higher payback periods. Sole trader A sole trader is most likely to employ his past experiences in evaluating an investment decision. If he had any past experiences which brought his current business or past businesses very close to bankruptcy due to high amount of debts, he would not like to take up projects which are not cash positive in short term even though they might have a positive net cash flow over their life. Most of the sole traders even don’t understand their true cost of capital. If they fund an internal project from internal accruals they don’t associate any cost with it. Very seldom they think about an opportunity cost of capital. Another reason for not associating costs to internal funds is the absence of difference between business and personal finances. Sole traders don’t have an external majority shareholder to report to and are not accountable to outsiders. They keep on drawing and adding back money to the business based on their personal requirements. Under such circumstances, it becomes very difficult for a sole trader to keep track of all cash flows associated with a project and hence is unable to do the asset investment decision making on the discounted cash flow model. As an example, we look at the independent pharmacies, i.e., those pharmacies not owned by a group or corporate houses and they normally have 1 to 5 pharmacy outlets in UK. Many of these are limited companies and owned and managed by a qualified pharmacist. Due to increasing regulatory requirements and competition, pharmacies are undergoing refurbishment to offer additional services and increase foot fall and over the counter sales. Over the counter sales have higher margins than NHS prescriptions. Most of the owners of the independent pharmacies are qualified pharmacists who have professionally managed their pharmacies but don’t have the financial expertise to properly evaluate an asset investment decision based on capital budgeting. When independent pharmacy owners spend money on refurbishment, they don’t take into account the cash flows associated specifically with the refurbishment over its project period. Most of them don’t have the financial expertise to build a full-scale discounted cash flow model to find out the net present value of the refurbishment project. Nor they like to spend money on external resources to do a financial evaluation. If they see that their peers in the pharmacy industry have managed to do well with refurbishment projects, they undertake similar projects. B) Comparison of investment decisions in stable and unstable business environments When companies have time to plan in advance, they do account for different risks when planning investment decisions. Cooper et. al. (2002) surveyed companies on the method of handling risk in the capital budgeting process. 87% of the respondents replied that they use subjective techniques and 65% affirmed that they used quantitative techniques. On the methods used to quantify risk, 33% of the respondents replied that they increase the required rate of return or cost of capital to compensate for risk considerations. But planning for risk in stable times and then taking decisions in unstable times are different things due to dynamics of things during unstable times. The major difference between stable and unstable environment is the increase in risk during unstable environment. Companies face two different kind of unstable business environments – company specific and economic-wide unstable business environment. Company specific unstable environment relate to company only and occur mostly due to rapid changes in that industry and/or the financial state of that company. The additional major risks facing a company under economic-wide unstable times are political risks and foreign exchange risks. Even though companies plan for political risks by adjusting rate of capital, when they actually face such a scenario, the investment decision making is more than just calculating net present value. Alessandri (2003) found that managers rely on their personal judgment and experience more than on quantitative decision tools as uncertainty increases. The use of qualitative tools more at the times of higher uncertainty deviates from the reliance of academic literature on quantitative tools only. Consider the example of firms planning to invest in Bolivia. Bolivia’s new president has nationalised mining industry. Any firm planning to invest in Bolivia will reassess the risk involved in investing there as its assets could be nationalised in future. It can use the net present value models and adjust political risk factor to incorporate future nationalising in Bolivia. But even after obtaining a positive net present value, most of the companies would not like to invest at current times. They would like to wait and watch to see further actions of the Bolivian government before making any investment decision. If the firm has external shareholders, the management would not like to invest in Bolivia now because if anything goes wrong in future, the management will find it very difficult to justify their action. They would rather play it safe and let the investment opportunity pass by if not invest later rather than facing a situation where their decisions could be severely cr iticised. The other major risk that could happen in unstable times is the foreign exchange risk. During 1997-98 the currencies of South East Asian countries plummeted. The drop was so sudden and so sharp that all financial modelling about risk incorporation couldn’t take full effects into consideration. Foreign investment in South East Asian countries in late 1997 and 1998 dropped significantly. Most of the companies waited for the government to take action and economy to stabilise before channelling in their investments. Because of the sharp drop in their currencies, it was widely expected that South East Asian countries would impose some ban on foreign capital repayment to prevent further out flow of foreign exchange. When countries did implement such ban, multinational companies were not sure when such a ban would be lifted and did not invest in South East Asian economies till the situation became normal. The rapid change in business environment during crisis times makes it very difficult for companies to assign value to various risk factors used in capital asset pricing model and net present value. This also results in managements relying more on qualitative analysis for investment decision making. Companies also face unstable business environment or crisis times which are specific to them only. This normally occurs when a company is perceived to be unable to meet its debt requirements and there are chances of it going into administration. At such times even though the company may come across a positive net present value project, it would be unable to invest money into the project because of high debt level concerns. Stagecoach is a UK listed firm in transportation sector. Prior to 2001, it had diversified in UK, Hong Kong and New Zealand. Sep 11, 2001 events severely impacted its tour operations because of reduced travel. Because of high fixed cost in establishing travel business, sudden drop in revenues raised doubts about the loan serviceability[1]. This was reflected in the sudden drop of Stagecoach’s share price which lost more than 3/4th of its value in the year 2002[2]. Even though Stagecoach’s Hong Kong operations were profitable, the management sold Hong Kong operations to reduce debt levels to meet market expectations[3]. The management also sold other operations in non-UK countries and its share of a joint venture with Virgin Rail to reduce debt levels. Investment decision making in crisis times involves more than just quantitative analysis and managements make decisions based on their past experiences and likely outcome of different scenarios. Many times during company-specific crisis of high debt, managements take investment decisions to meet market expectations rather than decisions based on net present value. CONCLUSION Capital budgeting decisions play a very important role in deciding future growth of a company. Academics rely on use of financial models like net present value, capital asset pricing model and internal rate of return to evaluate investment decisions. Over the years, the use of above methods has become more common. Large companies mostly use the above methods in asset investments. But in case of smaller companies, the use of other methods like payback period is still prevalent. Though over the years the gap between theory and practice has narrowed down, the use of payback period method shows that smaller companies either don’t have the expertise or resources to do proper financial evaluation. The owner-managers of smaller companies and sole traders also rely heavily on their past experiences to decide about investments. During uncertain and crisis times, managements rely more on their qualitative analysis than on quantitative analysis to make investment judgments even though they carry out more financial analysis. Managements would not like to take decisions just on the basis of net present value to invest during crisis times. BIBLIOGRAPHY Alessandri, T. (2003). â€Å"The impact of risk and uncertainty on rationality: Evidence from capital investment decision processes†. Working paper presented at the Academy of Management Conference, Seattle, WA. Brounen, D., A. de Jong and K. Koedijk (2004). â€Å"Corporate finance in Europe: Confronting theory with practice†. Financial Management, Tampa. Winter 2004. Vol. 33, Iss. 4; Pg. 71 Cooper, W.D., R.G. Morgan, A. Redman and M. Smith (2002). â€Å"Capital budgeting models: theory versus practice†, Business Forum, Los Angeles, 2002, Vol. 26, Iss. 1/2, Pg.15 Ekanem, I. (2005). â€Å"‘Bootstrapping’: The investment decision-making process in small firms†. The British Accounting Review, Kidlington. Sep 2005, Vol. 37, Iss. 3, Pg. 299 Graham, J.R. and Harvey, C.R. (2001). â€Å"The theory and practice of corporate finance: Evidence from the field†. Journal of Financial Economics, Amsterdam. May/Jun 2001. Vol. 60, Iss. 2,3; Pg. 187 [1] Stagecoach trading update (http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=200204290701312056V) [2] Stagecoach share price chart (http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=SGC.Lt=5y Date 21 Jan 2007) [3] Stagecoach’s sale of Hong Kong operations (http://www.investegate.co.uk/Article.aspx?id=200401190817013617U)

Salem Witch Trials and Account

Salem Witch Trial: Hangings Michelle Woodring Mr. Yates American Literature 1 May 2010 Salem Witch Trial: Hangings Theses— There were many casualties of the Salem Witch Trials and there are still many mysteries today. * Salem History and Background * Witch Craft Starting * Symptoms of Witch Craft * People Accused of Witch Craft * Trials * Hangings * End of the Witch Hunt Michelle Woodring Mr. Yates American Literature 1 May 2010 Salem Witch Trials: Hanging’s In1688, John Putnam invited Samuel Parris to preach in the Village church (â€Å"An Account of. . †). A year later inflation adjustments, and free firewood, Parris accepted the job as Village minister r(â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). He moved to Salem Village with his wife Elizabeth, his six year old daughter Betty, niece Abagail Williams, and his Indian slave Tituba (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Sometime during February of 1692 young Betty Parris became strangely ill (â€Å"Salem Witch Trialsà ¢â‚¬ ). The cause of her symptoms seemed to match those of Ergot (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). Betty’s behavior in some ways mirrored that of witch craft (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†).It was easy to believe with an Indian war raging less than several miles away that the devil was close in hand (An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Talk of witch craft increased when other playmates of Betty’s began to exhibit similar unusual behavior (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). William Griggs, a doctor, was called in to examine the girls he suggested that the girl’s problems might have a supernatural origin (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). The number of girls afflicted continued to grow rising to seven (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). The girls contorted into poses, fell down into frozen postures, and complained of biting and pinching sensations (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ).Sometime after February 25 and 29 the first three accused of witch craft w ere Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborn (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). Tituba was an obvious choice (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). Sarah Good was a beggar (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). Sarah Osborn was old and had not attended a church for over a year (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). Tituba was the first witch to admit to doing witch craft (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). Soon the spectral forms of other women attacking the afflicted girls came into the court rooms (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ).Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, Sarah Cloyce, and Mary Easty were accused of witch craft during a March 20 church service (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Dorcas Good, four-year-old daughter of Sarah Good, became the first child to be accused of witch craft when three of the girls complained that they were bitten by the specter of Dorcas (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Deliverance Hobbs became the second witch to confess for doing witch craft (â€Å"An A ccount of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). The first accused witch to be brought to trial at the local church was Bridget Bishop (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ).At Bishop’s trial on June 2 a field hand testified that he saw Bishop’s image stealing eggs and then saw her transform herself into a cat (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Bishop’s jury returned a verdict of guilty on June 10 (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Bishop was carted to Gallows Hill and hanged (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). As the summer of 1692 warmed, the pace of trials picked up (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). John Proctor was openly critical of the trial and paid for his skepticism with his life (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). No execution caused more unease in Salem than that of the village’s ex minister, George Burroughs (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ).Burroughs was identified by several of his accusers as the ringleader of the witches (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢ € ). Among the thirty accusers of Burroughs was nineteen-year-old Mercy Lewis that offered unusually vivid testimony against Burroughs saying that he had came to her in the middle of the night and made her sign the Devils book (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). Burroughs became guilty and took to Gallows hill to be hanged he recited the Lord’s Prayer perfectly which greatly moved people (â€Å"An Account of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). The Lord’s Prayer: Our father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, As in heaven, so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we Also have forgiven our debtors And lead us not into temptation, but Deliver us from evil: for thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory Forever. Amen. One victim of Salem witch-hunt was not hung his name was Giles Corey (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). He died from being pressed to death by stones (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). T hree days after Giles Corey’s death on September 22 eight more convicted witches were hung (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†).They were the last victims of the witch-hunt (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). With spectral evidence not admitted, twenty-eight of the last thirty-three witchcraft trials ended in acquittals (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). In May of 1693, all remaining accused or convicted witches were released from prison (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). By the time witch-hunt ended nineteen convicted witches were executed (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). And at least four accused witches had died in prison (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). Then one man was pressed to death by stones (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†).About one or two hundred other persons were arrested and imprisoned on witch craft charges and two dogs were executed as suspected accomplices of witches (â€Å"Salem Witch Trials†). Works Cited Linder, Douglas O. â€Å"An Account of Events in Salem,† Famous American Trials: Salem Witch Craft Trials of 1692. Sep 2009. Web. 15 Apr 2010. â€Å"Salem Witch Trials. † Wikipedia. Wikipedia Foundation. Inc. 12 Apr 2010. Web. 15 Apr 2010. â€Å"Matthew 6:9-13, The Lord’s Prayer. † Holy Bible: King James Version. Holman Bible Publishers. 1973. 26 Apr 2010.

Psychology †Stereotype Essay

Prejudice means the attitude toward the members of some group based solely on their membership in that group and it can be positive or negative. The main reason of prejudice is most probably stereotyping and it involves generalizations about the typical characteristics of members of the groups. Prejudice is ubiquitous and it affects all of us and it sometimes cause negative consequences. Hence, many people search works or studies to remove prejudice effects. We also learn from texts which is called ‘’Understanding Prejudice and ‘’The Cognitive Process’’ by Gordon W. Allport. In addition George Aliken says †If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed, and color, we would find some other causes for prejudice by noon. ’’ It shows that prejudice cannot be removed totally and I strongly agree with this statement. In other words, people cannot have a chance to get rid of prejudices because of many stereotypes, a fear of the unfamiliar and the effects of social environment. Stereotypes is the main factor why it is impossible to get rid of prejudice totally. Each society has many stereotypes about different issues and it is impossible to isolate people from society not to affected these stereotypes. To begin with, stereotypes may cause dangerous results if they are taught as truths especially for children. It is called early learning process and it includes passive acceptance of information and lack of awareness. (Cole, Jim Understanding Prejudice) It also don’t give opportunity to children to test these stereotypes or any information which is given by instructors or adults. I mean that especially children can gain many new stereotypes easily and they may believe as a truth. If this condition happens, it would very difficult to change or manipulate these belief systems because many psychologists argue that childhood is most important process to shape character and many characteristic feature are gained at childhood. (http://psychology. about. com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/childdevtheory. htm) For example, a teacher who hates black people can teach that black people are bad and even evil. It is undoubted fact that children who are in that classroom is influenced badly by this approach because students especially who are in elementary school trust their teacher completely. It can affect whole life of people and it is difficult to prevent. On the other hand, any experience cause to acquire new and dangerous stereotypes. Actually, experiences are more effective way to gain stereotypes because memory generally cannot be forgotten but inputs are easily forgotten in a short time. According to research, Children who have bad childhood memory which cause change the viewpoint toward any group say that these kind of events influence whole life. It is way to gain stereotypes and it may cause discrimination if event relates to black people or muslim people. Children start to think all black people bad and we should avoid them, if any black people stole their money or beat them.. These kind of event affect all children and they cannot forget even now. (http://www. ehow. com/info_8621376_bad-childhood-affect-relationships. html) There is important point to have stereotypes, it does not matter how you acquire it. Sometimes national belief or values cause prejudice, sometimes unconscious people cause it. Prejudice prevent people from listening the other people and this is a big obstacle to developing empathy skills. Hence, stereotypes is main factor to acquire prejudice and also it is main obstacle to get rid of prejudice. Being a part of any group is so important thing for many people. They think that they cannot live without this because they believe that groups prevent them from being alone and it is necessary to compete others. There is competition between group members so being a part of a group is important point. (Dugan, A. Maire Prejudice) However, it causes prejudice against other groups because group members start to consider other belief system is completely wrong and they don’t accept any other beliefs because of the fear of unfamiliar. To begin with, each political or economic group have common goal and they have to have strict approach about some issues to achieve that. These kind of approach definitely consist of some prejudice against others. Each group member feel thinking like this on the contrary case my group lose competition they think out of group. Moreover, people may start to care about people who are like them. I mean that people may judge others because of their groups without any reason so they don’t care about issues which belongs others. For instance, an earthquake happened three months ago and many people sent many aid but some people did not sent because of some ridiculous reasons such as discrimination. They think that people who live in Van may support terrorist group and they did not deserve any aid. However, I think that anybody can think like this, there is one explanation to understand this situation and it is being a part of group. The conflict between their group and other groups prevent people from thinking logically and as a result of this they don’t send any aid materials for the victim of earthquake for this situation. I think that this kind of prejudice is very dangerous and it is very troublesome. People can not think freely until they leave group because if they resist group or reject to accept some group prejudices, they most probably face being out of group. Hence, prejudices which generate being a part of group are irrepressible. Prejudices does not depends on any logical reasons, they include dogmatical causes and people does not think whether it is true or not. People can behave differently in spite of under the some conditions toward two different people. This situation may conclude in a two different way. Firstly, people recede from one group. Therefore, people has negative attitude to this group. On the other hand, people get closer their own group. It may be seen a positive result of prejudice. If people feel belonging one group, they will start to love group members without any reason and they does not aware of group members’ mistakes. The while, sometimes they start to hate other people because any group members hate them. This enhance connection between group members but if we consider others, situation will vice versa. People start to think like other group members, they afraid to show thoughts when they think differently group members. Thus, it is starting to change the way people think. Prejudices cause sometimes behavioral changes. It is called discrimination. Problem start to be insoluble when people act. Behaviours return to habits and then free thinking start to get lost. As a resut of this, people are categorised us and others. Some people will be scapegoat because of the nature of categories and some people will be heroes because of same reason. For instance, many negroes are famous athletes and many famous athletes are national heroes; then many negroes are national heroes. It is ridiculous but it is a result of prejudice. Prejudices raise intolerant people and these people suppose that their all thoughts and beliefs correct. Hence, it is impossible to get rid of prejudices. Prejudices originate various reasons or factors and almost all people have some prejudices because getting rid of these is pretty difficult for people. ‘’Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices – just recognize them’’ – Edward Roscoe Murrow. Actually it is important point to recognize them because many people does not aware of this during whole life. However, We can reduce the effects of prejudice but it is impossible to remove prejudice because of stereotypes, being a part of group member and the effects of prejudice on way of thinking and connection between people . It may only possible to live in island singly but I am not sure for this. WORK CITES BOOK ENTRY I don’t use any book. ARTICLE ENTRY. Cole, Jim. ‘’Understanding Prejudice’’. jimcole@beyondprejudice. com Gordon, W. Allport. ‘’The Cognitive Process’’ Massachusetts Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. , 1991 WEB SOURCE ENTRY Pru, Laura. ‘’How Does a Bad Childhood Affect Relationships? (http://www. ehow. com/info_8621376_bad-childhood-affect-relationships. html) June 20, 2011. March,22 2012 Cheery, Kendra. Child Development Theories. (http://psychology. about. com/od/developmentalpsychology/a/childdevtheory. htm) March, 22 2012 FILM ENTRY I don’t use film source.

My First Semester At The University Of Southern Indiana

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