Capital Budgeting: Theory and Practice

Corporate financial managers continually invest funds in assets, and these assets produce income and cash flows that the firm can then either reinvest in more assets or distribute to the owners
of the firm. Capital investment refers to the firm’s investment in assets, and these investments may be either short term or long term in nature. Capital budgeting decisions involve the long-term commitment
of a firm’s scarce resources in capital investments. When such a decision is made, the firm is committed to a current and possibly future outlay of funds.