Investeringsbedömningstekniker i praktiken: En fallstudie om Divisionen

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how theoretical investment appraisal techniques are applied in an investment driven company, regarding investments in fixed assets. The aim is also to investigate on what grounds the choices of techniques are justified, and what consequences these choices have on the overall investment appraisal. The study is designed as a case study of Divisionen, a production unit of a market leading company in Sweden, which is kept anonymous in this thesis. The empirical data consists of interviews with company employees and internal documents, including decision support for seven approved investment projects. The interviewees were chosen based on their role in the investment decision making process. The theoretical frame of reference includes decision and process oriented investment appraisal theory, in which we conducted a pre-study before we approached the empirical study. The thesis shows that Divisionen’s appraisal techniques have a clear establishment in the theory, and that Divisionen has adjusted the theory’s archetype models to better fit the company’s situation. The possibilities of using quantitative appraisal techniques are clearly limited due to a complex context and the inherent difficulties in reliably quantifying important aspects. Therefore, to a large extent, the decision-maker has to rely on qualitative judgments. The thesis also finds that Divisionen’s investment council has a central role in the investment appraisal process, and in the interpretation of the investment proposals. We suggest that this can partly be explained by the importance of non-quantified aspects.