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Evaluating capital investments for additions or modifications to warehouses, for replacement of equipment or for entirely new facilities is a complex activity which involves numerous financial, competitive and other considerations. The financial aspect of capital investments is addressed and it is shown how ten different investment criteria can be brought to bear on the capital investment issue. The ten investment criteria consist of five primary criteria and five secondary criteria. The primary criteria are payback period in years, non‐discounted rate of return on investment, internal rate of return, Baldwin rate of return, and benefit cost ratio. All ten criteria are described and suggestions are made when each criterion is appropriate.

Finds that agricultural co‐operatives have not been as sophisticated in their utilization of capital budgeting as a planning and financial management tool as have traditional corporations. Suggests that this may be due to the differences in the organizational objectives of the co‐operatives and the for‐profit corporations.

A 42‐question survey on usage and beliefs regarding sales force automation (SFA) was collected, along with actual sales performance data, on 1,641 sales representatives of a large international pharmaceutical company in Germany, England, and the United States. The relationships between beliefs and usage and individual sales performance were examined both within and across countries and a cost‐benefit analysis completed. Factor analysis identified five usage groupings including: Planning and territory management; Administration and external information exchange; Within company communication; Active sales tool; and Passive sales tool. Significant usage, belief, and performance differences between countries were found, with the use of SFA explaining 16.4 per cent of the variance in sales performance across countries. General findings indicated that management and representatives believed SFA to be useful. US$22.2 million in sales increases were found to be attributable to SFA usage. At the same time, non‐discounted cash flow payback periods were found to range from 6.2 to 7.4 years. Potential contributing factors and implications are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current capital budgeting practices in Bangladeshi listed companies and provide a normative framework (guidelines) for practitioners.

Data were collected with a structured questionnaire survey taking from the chief financial officers (CFOs) of companies listed in the Dhaka Stock Exchange in Bangladesh. Garnered data were then analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques.

The results found that net present value was the most prevalent capital budgeting method, followed closely by internal rate of return and payback period. Similarly, the weighted average cost of capital was found to be the widely used method for calculating cost of capital. Further, results also revealed that CFOs adjust their risk factor using discount rate.

The findings of this study might help the firms, policymakers and practitioners to take a wise decision while evaluating investment projects. Additionally, this study’s findings enrich the existing body of knowledge in the field of capital budgeting practices by providing more reliable and comprehensive analysis taking samples from a developing economy.

This paper aims to argue that the methodologies adopted by the conventional management accounting in selecting between or among two or more alternative courses of action, both in the long-term and the short-term decision making endeavours conflict with the overall objective ( falah) of Islamic enterprises.

The paper explores relevant literatures (including the Qur'an and the Hadeeth) to ascertain the objective of an Islamic enterprise and suggest an alternative approach, in making a choice among alternative courses of action, that aligns with the Islamic socio-economic objective ( falah).

The paper suggests that both in long-term and short-term decision making endeavours, cost-benefit comparison (where cost includes negative externalities) rather than discounted cashflow techniques or contribution margin should be adopted in making a final choice among alternatives to achieve falah.

The paper has not considered other objectives that may be pursued by an organisation beside profit maximization whether short-term or long-term.

The paper expands the frontiers of knowledge in Islamic accounting by exposing the inadequacy of the conventional management accounting decision making methods.

This paper explores the Islamic perspective of the conventional management accounting which is rare among scholars of accounting.

The purpose of this paper is to provide additional empirical evidence about capital budgeting practices in an emerging economy.

The study utilizes a questionnaire and interview to collect data from respondents.

The results show that the JIC give almost equal importance to the discounted and undiscounted cash flow methods in evaluating capital investment projects. It appeared also that the most frequent used technique is the profitability index followed by the payback period.

Based on these results, the researchers recommend putting a great attention to apply the concepts and techniques of capital budgeting in an appropriate manner. The corporations should also consider importance of information technology and its applications in capital budgeting.

This is the first study applied on the capital budgeting practices and its related issues in the JIC.

This research should help determine whether development should focus on individual firms or will raising the national development level act like a rising tide and raise the performance of all corporations.

The comparative data used in this study come from 150 Australian (ASX200 index listed) firms and 150 Sri Lankan (Colombo Stock Exchange listed) firms. The research questions are answered via a quantitative research design that uses primary and secondary data.

The findings demonstrate that capital budgeting practices are more influenced by contingency features and sophistication in Australia and Sri Lanka. Also, Australian firms tend to use capital budget models with good-to-strong predictive power (except for ROE) and Sri Lankan firms tend to use capital-budget models with fair-to-poor predictive power. Further, the analysis of Australian firms yielded much stronger and more statistically significant results than the analysis of Sri Lankan firms.

In complex real-world situations, reconciling the outputs of a multifaceted approach to capital budgeting methods is more likely to give the depth and width of input needed to achieve an optimal capital investment plan.

The results of this study can provide rich information for stakeholders about new findings in capital budgeting (CB) practices and their contributions to firm performance in a comparative perspective.

Most research on management accounting change relates to practices in developed countries. This paper reports on a field study of management accounting change in the South African context. It uses a contingency theory framework within four retail companies to understand the processes of their management accounting systems change and to explore the rationales for such change processes. The findings indicate considerable changes in management accounting systems within the four cases. Such changes include increased use of contemporary management accounting practices notably activity‐based cost allocation systems and the balanced scorecard approach to performance measures. The paper suggests that recent environmental changes in the South African economy arising from government reform/deregulation policy and global competition largely facilitated the management accounting change processes within the participating organisations.

This paper presents the results of an empirical investigation into the capital budgeting practices of UK multinationals for foreign direct investment, with particular reference to the use of a conceptual framework of risk and return. Drawing upon Robock's (1965) criticisms of the lack of a conceptual framework for businessmen within which to make international financing and capital budgeting decisions, we assess briefly the developments in the theoretical framework of risk and return since Robock's address. We then review the existing empirical literature (mainly from America) and combine this with our own research involving 59 UK multinationals, to conclude that the developments in the theoretical framework of risk and return have not been translated into practice. We offer suggestions as to why this is the case.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an analytical model to assess the costs and benefits of radio frequency identification (RFId) applications in the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) supply chain.

The paper is based on an in‐depth literature review and a classification of the main contributions regarding the assessment of RFId applications. The impact of RFId technology on supply chain processes has been modelled using an activity‐based approach. An extensive, six‐month discussion and refinement process with the logistics and supply chain managers of 30 FMCG companies is conducted to validate the model and to collect the required inputs.

Pallet‐ and case‐level taggings have been explored. The former scenario shows limited benefits, whereas the actual potential of RFId becomes clear in the latter. The profitability of these projects is significantly affected by the costs of RFId tags and by the characteristics of the base‐line supply chain in terms of efficiency, quality requirements and, of course, product features. The model provides a clear assessment of how and when a positive return on investment can be achieved, even with today's technology (in terms of costs and performances).

This is one of the first attempts to provide a comprehensive analysis of the costs and benefits of an RFId application, taking into account all the major factors involved. The model can be a valuable support to manufacturers and retailers in evaluating their investments.