Investeringar och tillväxt – vilka faktorer påverkar? : En longitudinell studie av tillverkande företags investeringspraxis och tillväxt över tid

Sammanfattning: Background: Research about capital budgeting is under constant development. Several researchers developed the research about capital budgeting late in the 20th century. This development shows how companies' internal and external factors and other circumstances have an impact on companies’ capital budgeting practice. It has also been shown that there are links between companies capital budgeting and their growth. In 2005, a study showed a model with the connection explained above. Due to the changes that occur in the world and within companies, it is interesting to study whether the model presented a decade ago still explains corporate investment practice. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to increase the knowledge of external and internal factors related to the studied companies, and to identify whether the model from 2005 still explains the companies capital budgeting practice. Furthermore, the study intends to analyze if investments have had an impact on companies’ growth, and also which impact the growth has had on the development of companies’ capital budgeting practice. Methodology: The study was conducted by case studies of six companies. The selection of case companies is the same as in the study from 2005. The collection of the empirical data was conducted through qualitative, semi-structured interviews. Results: The model can still be used to explain companies’ capital budgeting practice, there has only been a change in how much the different internal and external factors affect the process. The results also show that investments have an impact on growth, and that the growth has an impact on companies’ capital budgeting practice.