Stockholm is one of the fastest growing cities in the world. Its population is growing every day and the housing needs are becoming higher. Despite the growth and the need for more houses only a few new housing units are being built every year. Critics argue that if the building rate stays as it is today the development of the city will be very limited since there is no capacity for the city to embrace new incomers. The decision makers in the municipality of Stockholm are planning for large investments in housing units for the coming years up until 2030. There are plans of building approximately 140 000 new apartments to mend the ascending need for new houses. Farsta County is part of Stockholm and lies a few kilometers to the south of the city center. Today the county contains roughly 5 000 housing units. It also contains enormous office facilities rented by the Swedish Telecom company TeliaSonera. These facilities are the current TeliaSonera headquarters, but due to the aging nature of the facilities the company has decided to move out. It is known among market experts that Farsta does not possess the most attractive office location. Thus when TeliaSonera leaves the premises there is potential risk that they will be vacant for quite a long time. And in such situation the opportunity comes to exploit the land in different use than its original. The high need of housing combined with the high office vacancy rate of the county generate the idea of using the land for housing purposes. One can either use the already existing buildings and convert them into apartments and then complete the rest of the land with new buildings, which is a more sustainable alternative. Or one can demolish the existing stock and build a completely new compound. Feasibility and social studies have been carried out in this paper to determine which alternative is the most suitable in the current situation. Out of social point of view the alternative where a completely new compound is produced is more beneficial than the alternative with the conversion and completion. This is due to the higher standard the new apartments will have compared to the other alternative plus, and according to the study, the higher number of flats obtained. It will also be more beneficial economically in the future due to the reduced costs of maintenance. Regardless of which alternative to be chosen the project is going to be costly and it is therefore important to organize it well by finding the financiers and studying all the legal and economic aspects before starting off with it. This project is estimated to produce over 2 500 apartments, a number that says much about the size of the project. / Stockholm är en av världens snabbast växande städer. Dess befolkning ökar för varje dag och behovet av nya bostäder växer. Trots stadens utveckling och det växande bostadsbehovet byggs det enbart ett fåtal nya bostäder årligen. Om det fortsätter att byggas så lite som det görs idag kommer stadens utveckling att hämmas rejält då det inte finns möjlighet för nyinflyttade att bo i staden. Stockholms stad planerar för stora investeringar i bostadssektorn i de kommande åren och fram till år 2030. Avsikten är att bygga färdigt runt 140 000 nya lägenheter fram till 2030 för att minska det växande bostadsbehovet. Farsta är en stadsdel som är belägen ca 10 kilometer söder om Stockholms stadskärna. Idag finns det cirka 5 000 bostäder i stadsdelen. I Farsta finns också TeliaSoneras huvudkontor som består av ett stort kontorsområde. TeliaSonera har beslutat att flytta från Farsta år 2016. Det är känt bland marknads experter att Farsta inte är attraktivt för kontorsverksamhet. När TeliaSonera flyttar ut finns det därför stor risk att lokalerna står vakanta en längre period utan att hyras. Därför är det lämpligt att tänka på alternativa användningar för området. Det växande bostadsbehovet kombinerat med områdets höga vakansgrad på kontor skapar iden om att omvandla området till bostäder. Då finns det sätt att tillgå. Antingen konverteras det gamla beståndet till lägenheter och kompletteras med nya hus för att uppnå önskad täthet för marken, vilket är ett grönare alternativ. Eller rivs allt gammalt och nytt byggs istället. Ekonomiska och sociala faktorer vägs in för att avgöra vilket alternativ är mer passande för dagens behov. Utav samhälleliga anledningar tycks alternativet med totalomvandling (där det gamla beståndet rivs ner) vara mer fördelaktigt jämfört med konverteringsalternativet. Det är på grund av att totalomvandlingen skapar fler lägenheter samt att de nyproducerade lägenheterna har högre standard. I längden kommer detta alternativ att också vara mer ekonomiskt fördelaktig då det har mindre drift- och underhållskostnader. Oavsett vilket alternativ som föredras innebär ett sådant projekt stora kostnader. Därför är det viktigt att redan i ett tidigt skede organisera projektet genom att hitta lämpliga investerare samt att studera de juridiska och ekonomiska aspekterna. Detta projekt beräknas producera drygt 2 500 lägenheter, något som talar om storleken av projektet.

Detta arbete har utrett möjligheten till att implementera variabelt varvtal hos bulbturbiner. Som utgångspunkt har anläggningar med ett Kaplanlöphjul och en växellåda analyserats där variabelt varvtal ska implementeras med en frekvensomriktare och ett löphjul med fasta skovelblad.  Arbetet har fokuserat på att avgöra vilka huvudkomponenter som krävs till inköp för att kunna implementera variabelt varvtal. Ett ytterligare mål var att avgöra vilken anläggning som kan ge mest producerad energi av en anläggning med fast och variabelt varvtal. Slutligen har lönsamheten för en investering som möjliggör ett variabelt varvtal bedömts. Till grund för beräkningar användes insamlad mätdata från anläggningarna under år 2022 och uppskattningar av verkningsgrad och inköpspris för de olika komponenterna.  Resultatet visar att det är möjligt att implementera variabelt varvtal i anläggningen, både genom att behålla växellådan och genom att bygga bort den. Att behålla växellåda är det alternativ som är enklast att implementera eftersom installationen och ombyggnationen blir mindre omfattande. Vidare kan en anläggning med variabelt varvtal potentiellt leda till en utökning av producerad energi där ökningen är åtminstone 0,8 GWh. Slutligen skulle en investering av denna typ kunna betraktas som lönsam under förutsättningen att man kan få intäkter från stödtjänster.  Dessa slutsatser bygger på en del antaganden som bör valideras med leverantörer. / This work has investigated the opportunities to implement variable speed for bulb turbines. As a reference, facilities with a Kaplan runner and a gearbox have been analyzed were variable speed is introduced with a frequency converter and a runner with non-adjustable blades.  The work has focused on determine which main components are necessary for purchases in order to implement variable speed. Another goal was to determine which facility can produce the most energy comparing a facility with variable and fixed speed. Lastly, the financially profitability of an investment that enable variable speed has been assessed.  The foundation of the calculations were based on measured data from the sites during year 2022 and approximations of efficiency and the price of purchase for the different components. The result shows that it is possible to implement variable speed in the facilities, with and without a gearbox. To keep the gearbox is the alternative that is easiest to implement due to less reconstruction of the facility. Furthermore, a facility with variable could potentially lead to an increase in produced energy where the increase is at least 0.8 GWh. Lastly, an investment of this kind could be considered profitable under the assumption that it is possible to receive revenue from ancillary services.  The conclusions are made on assumptions that needs to be validated with suppliers.

Yes / We provide multi-factor real option models (and quasi-analytical solutions) for equipment capital budgeting under uncertainty, when there is either unexpected, or anticipated, or uncertain (volatile) technological progress. We calculate the threshold level of revenues and operating costs using the incumbent equipment that would justify replacement. Replacement is deferred for lower revenue thresholds. If progress is anticipated or highly uncertain, alert financial managers should wait longer before replacing equipment. Replacement deferral increases with decreases in the expected correlation between revenue and operating costs, and with increases in the revenue and/or operating cost volatility. Uncertain technological progress increases the real option value of waiting. The best approach for equipment suppliers is to reduce the expected revenue and/or cost volatility, and/or reduce the expected uncertainty of technological innovations, since then an incentive exists for the early replacement of old equipment when a technologically advanced version is launched.

The purpose of this study is to explain how investment-specific and firm-specific risk affects small and medium sized enterprises’ (SMEs) choice of capital budgeting technique for strategic investments.Furthermore, this study also aims to identify which of these risks affects the choice of capital budgeting technique to the greatest extent. This study assumes a positivistic perspective and adopts a deductive reasoning. The theoretical framework consists of the expected utility theory, the stakeholder theory  and existing research of risk and capital budgeting. The research method has been quantitative and data have been collected through a survey. The results indicates that both investment-specific and firm-specific risk has a significant impact on SMEs’ choice of capital budgeting technique for strategic investments. The results also indicates that SMEs under high levels of risk choose unsophisticated capital budgeting techniques. Furthermore, the findings shows that investment specific risk has a greater impact on SMEs’ choice of technique than firm-specific risk. Since this study examines investment-specific and firm-specific risk simultaneously, it differs from previous research. Previous research have examined each risk independently and therefore drawn individual conclusions for each individual risk’s impact on the choice of capital budgeting technique. This study also differs from previous research since the firm-specific risk is based on firm’s debt structure rather than the firm’s capital structure. Through this, the study contributes to existing research by explaining, previously neglected, underlying factors to SMEs’ choice of capital budgeting technique. / Studien syftar till att förklara hur investeringsspecifik och företagsspecifik risk påverkar små och medelstora företags (SME-företag) val av kapitalbudgeteringsteknik vid strategiska investeringar, samt kartlägga vilken av dessa risker som påverkar valet i störst utsträckning.  Studien utgår från den positivistiska forskningsfilosofin tillsammans med en deduktiv forskningsansats där teorin om förväntad nytta och intressentteorin tillsammans med tidigare forskning om risk och kapitalbudgetering utgjort den teoretiska referensramen. Studiens forskningsmetod har varit kvantitativ där data insamlats genom en enkätundersökning. Efter genomförda analyser av den insamlade datan framgår det att investeringsspecifik och företagsspecifik risk har en signifikant påvisbar påverkan på SME-företags val av kapitalbudgeteringsteknik vid strategiska investeringar. Studiens hypoteser om att hög investeringsspecifik samt hög företagsspecifik risk leder till ökad användning av osofistikerade tekniker har genom resultatet visat sig stämma. Av resultatet framgår även att investeringsspecifik risk har större påverkan än företagsspecifik risk på valet av teknik. Denna studie skiljer sig från tidigare forskning då både investeringsspecifik och företagsspecifik risk undersökts samtidigt. Tidigare forskning har undersökt varje risk individuellt och har således dragit individuella slutsatser för varje enskild risks påverkan på SME-företags val av kapitalbudgeteringsteknik. Likaså skiljer sig studien från tidigare forskning genom att den företagsspecifika risken utgjorts av företagens skuldstruktur snarare än företagens kapitalstruktur. Studien bidrar genom detta till att förklara bakomliggande faktorer till valet av kapitalbudgeteringsteknik som av tidigare forskning försummats.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T16:44:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Eduardo Noboru Kawabuchi.pdf: 4540166 bytes, checksum: 6699b6689f7e236475d2da8088dcd400 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-22 / The use of financial mathematics in project management usually is confined to preproject activities, being part of technical and economic feasibility atudy. After the start of the implementation of the project, it was found that the cost management is accomplished without further considers that a monetary unit does not have the same financial value on different dates. The existing literature on the project cost management does not address the issue. With this, is not established a direct relationship between the duration and costs of the Project, which is not true. A delay in any delivery of the project may not only reflect a negative result, it could mean a financial gain to the Project as a whole, at the same time that advances in deliveries may not always reflect only a positive result, it may adversely affect the financial result of the Project. This paper proposes a methodology the complement the traditional project cost management, integrated with capital budgeting practices in order to provide information that give support to decision making aimed at maximizing the return on investment / O uso da matemática financeira em gerenciamento de projetos costuma ficar circunscrito a atividades de pré-projeto, sendo parte integrante do EVTE (Estudo de Viabilidade Técnico-Econômica). Após o início da implantação do projeto, foi constatado que o gerenciamento de custos é realizado sem mais considerar que uma unidade monetária não tem o mesmo valor financeiro em datas diferentes. A literatura existente sobre o gerenciamento de custos em projeto não aborda o assunto. Com isso, não é estabelecida uma relação direta entre os prazos e os custos do Projeto, o que não é verdade. Um atraso em alguma entrega do Projeto pode não refletir apenas um resultado negativo, podendo significar um ganho financeiro ao Projeto como um todo, ao mesmo tempo em que antecipações em entregas nem sempre podem refletir apenas um resultado positivo, podendo causar efeitos negativos no resultado financeiro do Projeto. Esta dissertação vem propor uma metodologia complementar ao gerenciamento tradicional de custos de projetos, integrada às técnicas de análise de investimento, de forma a fornecer informações que deem suporte para a tomada de decisão visando a maximização do retorno do investimento

<p>Organizational Capital Budgeting Model (OCBM) is a general theory of capital budgeting that incorporates traditional capital budgeting theories and the consideration about firm's information/ organization structure. The traditional financial capital budgeting model is a special case of OCBM. Therefore, OCBM not only broadens the traditional model, but also explains the heterogeneous behaviors of firms using quasi/non-financial version of capital budgeting. I demonstrate the validity of OCBM with multiple research methods. The field studies about Asian conglomerates are carefully constructed. The conglomerates are important dataset to study organizational decision making because of their size, scope, controversial behaviors and global presence.</p> / Dissertation

Abstract This dissertation investigates the use of management accounting and control systems in R&amp;D intensive firms in different organizational life-cycle stages. The thesis consists of four essays focusing on two categories of management accounting and control systems: capital budgeting decisions and management control systems. First, we investigate the evaluation and financing of investment projects in R&amp;D intensive firms. Second, we moreover investigate how R&amp;D intensive firms themselves use management control systems and how investors control their investments in R&amp;D intensive target firms. The survey method within a contingency framework is used in the first three essays while the last essay represents the case study method. However, the dissertation as a whole is based on two main contexts, i.e. the organizational life-cycle and the field of high technology. The results indicate that more sophisticated capital budgeting methods are used in large-sized R&amp;D intensive firms while small-sized firms are not so likely to use these methods. The results indicate that firms understand the nature of R&amp;D investment on the level of strategic management, because they have adopted strategic management tools in order to achieve better financial performance. We conclude that high R&amp;D intensity plays an important role in management accounting, suggesting that large-sized high R&amp;D intensity firms take note of special characteristics of R&amp;D investments when taking strategic capital budgeting decisions. The comparison of the growth and revival stages extends the earlier life-cycle literature indicating that the information produced by management accounting and control systems is at least as important in the revival firm as it is during the first growth stage.

It is argued that the future of the workforce will be ‘humans and machines’ but not ‘humans vs machines’ due to the drift from ‘workforce planning’ to ‘work planning’. Advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its sub-fields have enabled the development of a new form of automation that is described as Intelligent Automation. It is the application of AI in ways that can learn, adapt and improve over time to automate tasks that were formally undertaken by a human. The purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework on the necessity of agility within the capital budgeting process for Intelligent Automations, as the traditional approaches ignore the effects of new or disruptive technologies like Artificial intelligence. This study provides advice to managers on the strategic fit of traditional capital budgeting models vs. alternatives like beyond budgeting in the context of Intelligent Automations for knowledge work (consulting, education, etc.) and service work (retail, cleaning, etc.). The approach to conduct this study will be mixed methods. From the outcomes of qualitative analysis through semi-structured interviews, the conceptual framework is formulated. This framework is tested using the survey responses data and quantitative methods. From the preliminary analysis of the pilot study conducted with 7 participants at the c-suite level, the consistent themes that are observed in this phenomenon are a) lack of data for planning due to non-linearity in the resource models in projects where AI is applied, b) use or misuse of the discretionary pool funding model and c) lack of adoption to new ways of working due to organizational climate. The two conflicting themes are the disagreements on ethics council, whether internal vs external and the expectations on human skills that cause the burden of change in large firms. A survey instrument is developed for data collection to analyze the conceptual model, which results from the qualitative study and literature review. A random sample of 217 respondents is chosen during the period from Nov 2020 to Mar 2021. A structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis is applied to investigate the research model. The measurement model is first examined for instrument validity, followed by an analysis of the structural model for testing associations hypothesized by the research model. The main findings show that – a) relationship between intelligent automation and agility in capital budgeting is positively significant b) the relationship between intelligent automation and agility in capital budgeting is negatively moderated by demand unpredictability. These findings provide advice to practitioners and decision-makers that one size fits all capital budgeting models are not recommended for projects with increased levels of intelligent automation. The novel contribution to theory is that ‘Demand unpredictability’ is a useful decision input parameter, which can be counter-intuitive at times when managers allocate capital or prioritize projects during capital budgeting cycles. This suggests that firms need to adapt to hybrid strategies by picking the best-fit approach to allocate capital towards Intelligent Automations or AI projects. It is not necessary to have one size fits all approach for capital budgeting. / Business Administration/Strategic Management / Accompanied by three files: 1) SurveyResponseData -Excel file 2) SPSS Data Analysis Output.spv 3) Data Analysis (all data) (2).Rmd

This Thesis uses several forms of a single-period option-based model to analyze the incidence of income tax under uncertainty, focusing on the various effects of tax asymmetries and observing the distinct features of individual and corporate taxation. Two particular applications are being advanced. The one strives to establish the economic effects of tax-deductibility, motivated initially by a thin-capitalization measure brought forth under the framework of the recent Czech public-finance reform. The pother one compares the terms of three distinct personal income-tax schedules, as they have been recently applied in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, investigating particular issues such as tiered rates, mandatory minimum tax, bracket creep, social taxes, as well as tax incidence in general. On the whole, we find that option-based models are well suited for miscellaneous forms of economic analysis under dynamic assumptions, overcoming the inherent limitations of comparative statics routinely used by mainstream economics. We also conclude that the Czech tax reform of 2008 has failed to achieve the level of economic neutrality and simplicity, characteristical for the Slovak flat-tax schedule of 2004. There are cases, where it has actually contributed to the emergence of new asymmetries.

[pt] Essa tese apresenta uma abordagem alternativa para orçamento de capital, denominada Métodos Modificados de Avaliação de Projetos de Investimentos em Ambiente Fuzzy, para avaliação de projetos em condições de incerteza. O desenvolvimento da abordagem proposta está dividido em duas fases: na primeira fase, é estabelecido um modelo determinístico generalizado que prevê explicitamente a utilização dos custos de oportunidade associados com os fluxos de caixa intermediários de um projeto de investimento empresarial. Os pressupostos implícitos dos métodos modificados da taxa interna de retorno e do valor presente líquido são incluídos nos métodos do índice de lucratividade e do tempo de retorno do investimento total. Os indicadores resultantes são o índice de lucratividade modificado e o tempo de retorno do investimento modificado. Essa abordagem unificada tem a propriedade de coincidir as decisões de aceitação / rejeição de projetos de investimentos de mesmos horizontes de vida e escalas com as do valor presente líquido modificado e, portanto, maximizam a riqueza do acionista. Na segunda fase, números fuzzy triangulares são utilizados para representar as incertezas das variáveis de um projeto de investimento: os fluxos de caixa, as taxas de financiamento e de reinvestimento e a taxa de desconto ajustada ao risco. Os indicadores fuzzy resultantes são o valor presente líquido modificado, a taxa interna de retorno modificada, o índice de lucratividade modificado e o tempo de retorno do investimento modificado. A aplicação de custos de oportunidades e de critérios difusos para a atribuição dos valores das variáveis permite obter resultados mais realistas e compatíveis com as condições de mercado. Devido à complexidade dos cálculos envolvidos, novas funções financeiras de uso amigável são desenvolvidas utilizando Visual Basic for Applications do MS-Excel: três, para avaliação de projetos em condições de certeza (MVPL, MIL e MTRI) e quatro para avaliação em condições de incerteza (MVPLfuzzy, MTIRfuzzy, MILfuzzy e MTRIfuzzy). A principal contribuição dessa tese é a elaboração de uma nova abordagem unificada para orçamento de capital em condições de incerteza que enfatiza os pontos fortes dos métodos modificados do valor presente líquido e da taxa interna de retorno, enquanto contorna os conflitos e as desvantagens individuais dos métodos convencionais. Os resultados mostram que os métodos propostos são mais vantajosos e mais simples de se utilizar que outros métodos de avaliação de investimentos em condições de incerteza. / [en] This thesis presents an alternative approach to capital budgeting, named Fuzzy Modified Methods of Capital Budgeting, for evaluating investment projects under uncertainties. The development of the proposed approach is divided into two phases: in the first stage, a general deterministic model that explicitly provides for the use of the opportunity costs associated with the interim cash flows of a project is established. The implicit assumptions of the modified internal rate of return and modified net present value methods are included in the index of profitability and in the total payback period. The resulting indicators are the modified index of profitability and the modified total payback period. This unified approach has the property to match the decisions of acceptance / rejection of investment projects with same horizons of life and same scales with the decisions of the modified net present value method and therefore maximize shareholder wealth. In the second phase, triangular fuzzy numbers are used to represent the uncertainties of the project variables: cash flows and reinvestment, financing and risk-adjusted discount rates. The resulting indicators are the fuzzy modified net present value, the fuzzy modified internal rate of return, the fuzzy modified index of profitability and the fuzzy modified total payback period. The application of opportunity costs and fuzzy criteria for determining the variables allows obtaining more realists and consistent results with the market conditions. Due to the complexity of the calculations involved, new MS-Excel financial functions are developed by using Visual Basic for Applications: three functions for evaluating projects under conditions of certainty (MVPL, MIL and MTRI) and four functions for evaluating projects under uncertainties (MVPLfuzzy, MTIRfuzzy, MILfuzzy and MTRIfuzzy). The main contribution of this thesis is to develop a unifying approach to capital budgeting under uncertainty that emphasizes the strengths of the methods of modified net present value and modified internal rate of return, while bypassing the individual conflicts and drawbacks of the conventional methods. Results show that the proposed methods are more advantageous and simpler to use than other methods of investment appraisal under uncertainties.