Capital budgeting practices in compagnies with activity abroad : the evolution of the use of tools through time

Résumé En

This paper, constructed as pedagogical notes, serves two complementary targets. On the one hand, it belongs to the initial part of a global applied research that should bring new arguments to the recurrent results obtained by previous studies, i.e. the observation that almost invariably, American corporations, multinationals and large companies have been found to have more sophisticated and advanced approaches to project evaluation than non-US, small-sized and country-focused (as opposed to international) ones.1 On the other hand, the authors are concerned about the current disparity of academic opinion on the evolution of decision tools for project evaluation. Some scholars believe in an increasing sophistication and others don't. Therefore, such a paper should be considered as an invitation to keep up with the latest academic theory and tools used by organisations to evaluate projects. Material that is taught to our readers today will surely be complemented through the decades to come, just as it was in the past. An original chronological approach has been chosen in order to emphasize this last point.