| Summary: | This thesis examines the nature and control of investment decisions in divisionalised companies. Investment decision making in divisions is a multidimentional managerial problem with organizational, financial and practical aspects. A review of the literature was used to gain an understanding of tre problem and to identify techniques capable of providing simultaneous solutions to as many of its dimensions as possible. An empirical survey of large British industrial firms was conducted to close an information gap in the literature of divisional operations. The findings of this survey were used to support the assumptions of a mathematical model. Although previous researchers were probably aware of the complexity of the issue, their approaches generally focussed on only one dimension at a time. This work considers issues ignored by previous approaches. Empirical evidence, regulation of interdependencies between divisions and the associated behavioural and data availability problems were given particular attention. Though our contribution remains within the deterministic framework, an extensive evaluation of the difficulties involved in relaxing the certainty assumption is provided together with a consideration of the latest developments in dealing with risk in investment appraisal. Possible extensions of the proposed solution and directions for further research are also provided.
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