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The paper looks at the influence of adding more projects on overall investment feasibility under conditions of uncertainty, and how far into the future the project cash flows should be relied upon, given that the project owner expects a reasonable level of feasibility attached to the investment.

The paper presents a formulation for the feasibility of the multi‐project case under uncertainty. A second order moment analysis method is adopted. Existing theory is extended to take into account the presence of multiple projects with a requirement imposed on feasibility by the project owner. In tandem with the theoretical development, example case study numerical results are presented.

With a conventional deterministic discounted cash flow analysis, the feasibility calculations change little in going from one to many projects. However with uncertainty attached, the feasibility calculations need to be reworked and become more complex, the issue of feasibility becomes less transparent on going from one to many projects, distinct feasibility transition points disappear, and feasibility is found to vary over the projects' time horizons.

The need for the analysis given in this paper resulted from an actual investment decision. The paper formulation provides interesting insight into feasibility calculations, and will be of use to practitioners engaged in front‐end project investment risk work.

The paper provides original commentary on the feasibility of multiple projects and the time‐variant nature of feasibility.

Buy/sell decisions in the property market, as in most markets, are based on individual or professional opinions that the exchange price is below or above the individual’s opinion of worth. This article considers the RICS definition of worth and explores other definitions and meanings in the property investment market. It reviews the current provision for DCF in standards or information papers and concludes that, while the International Valuation Standard Committee’s definition of market value is now recognised on a world basis, confusion over the meaning of “worth” and the use of DCF will continue if similar international standards are not agreed.

Purpose of This Chapter: This chapter examines the gender-based skewness witnessed in terms of women-led unicorns, as well as, in the field of entrepreneurship in general in India. India has been witnessing a booming startup landscape lately, with the country producing several new unicorns. Competing internationally, India comes third in world rankings regarding the number of unicorns made.

Design / Methodology / Approach: The methodology adopted in this chapter is case-based analysis of individuals with the help of secondary data available in the public domain. The authors employ comparative analysis methodology keeping two major parameters of interest as the verticals that form the basis of the comparative analysis.

Findings: The special provisions in place that are especially meant for women entrepreneurs in order to help them scale up their business and target higher profits have loopholes in them and as a result, a very low number of women-led businesses have been able to mark their presence in the unicorn club.

Research Limitations / Implications: A lesser number of women entrepreneurs in the unicorn club, so making generalizations has not been possible.

Practical Implications: The chapter gives a better understanding of the dynamics of the entrepreneurship arena in India with respect to women entrepreneurs who are doing significant work on the basis of scale of operation and profits.

Originality: This is an original chapter which has not been presented or published before. This chapter can be of immense value to anyone interested in India’s current entrepreneurial scenario, and useful to policymakers, researchers, and academicians.

The Discounted Cash Flow technique has been widely adopted in industry as the preferred method of evaluating the profit earning potential of alternative projects when they are being selected for the investment of new capital. Business planners have accepted that a procedure which examines the forecast of the whole life of a project and derives an overall return on capital or a net present worth in actuarial terms, is a more accurate way of choosing between projects than a calculation of the profit/capital ratio in a selected year.

Many engineering staff in the Health Service, from craftsmen to professional engineers, enter from outside the service at varying stages in their careers and from a variety of previous employments. Whilst more is now being done in the way of basic training via a substantial craft apprenticeship scheme and an honours degree studentship scheme, it is likely that substantial outside recruitment will continue for the foreseeable future. The Health Service is not primarily an engineering organisation, engineering staff total only 10 000 out of a total of 800 000 employees and the main training effort is of course in the medical, para medical, and nursing fields. Thus the engineering side of the Health Service contains numbers of staff trained in their basic trade or profession, but lacking knowledge of areas specialised to the Health Service. Because of their diversity of backgrounds and the breadth of knowledge required in the Health Service there are also gaps in more basic knowledge. Also, given the pace of change in some technologies, updating is necessary for all staff.

Traditionally, process improvement is considered a defect prevention effort. Current cost models consider the coupled effect of both prevention and appraisal costs on the cost of failure. This paper proposes a new model for the cost of quality, which captures the value of continuous process improvement in achieving economic operation. The model is developed to incorporate two cost functions. The first accounts for quality related costs incurred while maintaining a stable level of operation, while the second accounts for the cost of process improvement. Using incremental economics, the two cost functions are assembled and an economic criterion for evaluating improvement alternatives is developed. Numerical examples are used to illustrate potential applications and performance of the model.

This review of O.R. work in the fields of finance and investment indicates the considerable scope both for the standard tools of the trade, such as mathematical programming, and for the more general scientific approach which the author believes is characteristic of the best O.R. work. The use of scientific models of the system under study enables the investigator to compare alternative policies, to try out possible systems without the need to experiment in the real life situation—a particular merit of simulation techniques—and to search for optimum solutions.

In this paper, life cycle economic analysis (LCEA) of stand-alone solar photovoltaic (PV) modules is performed. It is tested for their commercial prospects in remote regions of India, which do not have a direct access of grid supply. Availability of grid supply depends on the population density. Solar PV technology is one of the first among several renewable energy technologies that have been adopted worldwide for meeting the basic needs of generation of electricity particularly in remote areas. Overall lifetime expenditures related to the power projects are analyzed and compared with the help of net present worth (NPW) theory. In the context of a developing country like India, it is found that the cost effectiveness of conventional or ‘green’ power driven sources depends on kW rating of generators and daily demand of consumers. The demand coverage, which would determine the commercial viability of renewable and non-renewable sources is calculated considering the practical power rating of generators available in the local market. This study is intended to assist planning of financial matters with regard to installing small to medium scale electric power generation using solar PV module in remote areas of India.

The purpose of the paper is to find the “effect of economic value of maintenance cost on the optimum selection of one alternative (either out‐or‐in‐sourcing) through the analysis of a case study of two projects: an existing on‐going project and a proposed bidding project”. In particular, the research is conducted to help PetroCost for Engineering Investment and Construction Company to take a decision on whether to have its own earth moving fleet (and hence maintain it) or rent one including the maintenance service as part of the outsourcing contract.

This research uses a case study approach whereby cost data and information are collected from two case projects, then presented and analyzed. Economic tools (measures of worth) and excel software were used in the first project, where payback period method and break‐even analysis are used in the second project. The two projects were considered as an integrated (complementary) case study, so different measures were applied to each project, although the three measures could be applied, implicitly, to each of them. The payback method is used as a quick screening method to determine, approximately, how long the project takes to recover the invested outlays. If the period is shorter than the period of time desired by the investor, then a further thorough analyses, rate of return and break‐even, are recommended to be undertaken. Two of the authors were consultants to the study, where the third was the technical manager of the company (PetroCost).

The results obtained from the analysis of the first case project (existing on‐going project) showed a saving of SDG717,484.31, while the second case study (bidding) showed a saving of 33.4 percent over the out‐sourcing cost, and a break‐even point of 27 days, one third of the recommended project life. Both cases are in favor of having their own trucks while conducting in‐house maintenance.

The traditional in‐house approach is considered by many firms as the best maintenance strategy. Nevertheless, out‐sourcing becomes a recognized challenging competing option, worldwide. However, out‐sourcing option not widely practiced in Sudan. The decision criteria presented in this paper provides a useful management tool for selecting the appropriate maintenance organization strategy. Although the criteria is applied for a truck fleet case in a construction firm, but it can be extended to the management of maintenance activities in the growing oil and associated industries in the country, besides the existing ones, where the skills' shortage of qualified maintenance personnel is evident.

Much of previous and current research on outsourcing focuses on managing outsourcing projects and evaluating ex post decisions' consequences (e.g. output measurability) more than addressing early planning and feasibility study stages. Hence, the paper is relevant in this respect and intended to contribute to the practice of maintenance management.

The tight schedule of developing, designing, and managing educational facilities limits the time and resources needed to correctly assess the full cost of building materials. As a result, the selection of interior finishing materials is commonly driven solely by initial cost. This study evaluates interior floor materials currently available for use in K‐12 educational facilities in the State of Florida. The range of materials chosen for the comparison encompasses common flooring materials installed over appropriate sub‐floor materials. The flooring alternatives are evaluated using a service life‐cycle cost (LCC) analysis based on the 50‐year service life specified by the Florida Department of Education. A net present worth (NPW) analysis that includes initial costs, operation and maintenance costs, and replacement costs of each selection is used to evaluate the materials. Interior floorings initial cost, replacement cost, service life, and operations and maintenance costs are compared to the materials resulting LCC.