The CFO and capital budgeting practices in Spanish firms

Abstract

Knowing how financial managers assess capital budgeting allocations is a relevant issue beyond the mere desire to know what others do and how they do it. In this paper, we report some of the findings from a survey conducted in 2011 among 140 financial managers of Spanish companies. The main conclusion from the study is the existing divorce between theory and practice in investment project valuation. However, when analyzing this split in depth using certain essential value sources, such as future growth opportunities, the divorce might emerge as more apparent than real.