Real Options Theory


Book Description

Examines the ways in which real options theory can contribute to strategic management. This volume offers conceptual pieces that trace out pathways for the theory to move forward and presents research on the implications of real options for strategic investment, organization, and firm performance.




Real R & D Options


Book Description

Real R&D options are among the earliest modelled real options, with now ten primary practical uses: general R&D planning, planning R&D in stages, evaluating test information, new product development timing, operations, abandonment, risk sharing, market funding, industry strategy and regulation. This book was partly motivated by requests to identify and develop real option models for R&D in telecommunications, petroleum technology and biotechnology. Nine new models cover information and implementation costs, analytical solutions for mean reverting, or fat tailed revenues, endogenous learning and exogenous and experiential shocks, American sequential options, and innovator advantages. Four new applications include forward start development options, exploration options, innovation with information costs, and innovator's real values with changing market share. R&D directors and researchers will find several uses for these models: - general R&D planning - evaluating test information - new product development timing - risk sharing - industry strategy and regulation - A practical guide to how organizations can use Real Option techniques to effectively value research and development by companies - Provides a rigorous theoretical underpinning of the use of Real Option techniques - Real Options applications are orientated around the economies of North America, Europe and Asia, for an international perspective




Real Options and Investment Under Uncertainty


Book Description

The study of investment under uncertainty was stagnant for several decades until developments in real options revitalized the field. The topics covered in this book include the reasons behind the under-investment programme.




Strategic Investment


Book Description

Corporate finance and corporate strategy have long been seen as different sides of the same coin. Though both focus on the same broad problem, investment decision-making, the gap between the two sides--and between theory and practice--remains embarrassingly large. This book synthesizes cutting-edge developments in corporate finance and related fields--in particular, real options and game theory--to help bridge this gap. In clear, straightforward exposition and through numerous examples and applications from various industries, Han Smit and Lenos Trigeorgis set forth an extended valuation framework for competitive strategies. The book follows a problem-solving approach that synthesizes ideas from game theory, real options, and strategy. Thinking in terms of options-games can help managers address questions such as: When is it best to invest early to preempt competitive entry, and when to wait? Should a firm compete in R&D or adopt an accommodating stance? How does one value growth options or infrastructure investments? The authors provide a wide range of valuation examples, such as acquisition strategies, R&D investment in high-tech sectors, joint research ventures, product introductions in consumer electronics, infrastructure, and oil exploration investment. Representing a major step beyond standard real options or strategy analysis, and extending the power of real options and strategic thinking in a rigorous fashion, Strategic Investment will be an indispensable guide and resource for corporate managers, MBA students, and academics alike.




Project Flexibility, Agency, and Competition


Book Description

While most approaches to capital budgeting have used discounted cash flow valuation techniques, recent attention has been given to the valuation of "real options" to look at capital budgeting decisions and project management. Real options are a measure of the value of managerial flexibility and strategic value in capital investment. Because this topic is important but not yet covered adequately, "Innovation, Infrastructure and Strategic Options" fills a major gap in the market. This text deals with issues of R & D and technology options, investments involving learning, infrastructure, competition, strategy, and growth options.




Investment under Uncertainty


Book Description

How should firms decide whether and when to invest in new capital equipment, additions to their workforce, or the development of new products? Why have traditional economic models of investment failed to explain the behavior of investment spending in the United States and other countries? In this book, Avinash Dixit and Robert Pindyck provide the first detailed exposition of a new theoretical approach to the capital investment decisions of firms, stressing the irreversibility of most investment decisions, and the ongoing uncertainty of the economic environment in which these decisions are made. In so doing, they answer important questions about investment decisions and the behavior of investment spending. This new approach to investment recognizes the option value of waiting for better (but never complete) information. It exploits an analogy with the theory of options in financial markets, which permits a much richer dynamic framework than was possible with the traditional theory of investment. The authors present the new theory in a clear and systematic way, and consolidate, synthesize, and extend the various strands of research that have come out of the theory. Their book shows the importance of the theory for understanding investment behavior of firms; develops the implications of this theory for industry dynamics and for government policy concerning investment; and shows how the theory can be applied to specific industries and to a wide variety of business problems.




The New Investment Theory of Real Options and its Implication for Telecommunications Economics


Book Description

Randall B, Lowe Piper & Marbury, L.L.R The issue of costing and pricing in the telecommunications industry has been hotly debated for the last twenty years. Indeed, we are still wrestling today over the cost of the local exchange for access by interexchange and competitive local ex change carriers, as well as for universal service funding. The U.S. telecommunications world was a simple one before the emergence of competition, comprising only AT&T and independent local exchange carriers. Costs were allocated between intrastate and interstate jurisdictions and then again, between intrastate local and toll. The Bell System then divided those costs among itself (using a process referred to as the division of revenues) and independents (using a process called settlements). Tolls subsidized local calls to keep the politi cians happy, and the firm, as a whole, covered its costs and made a fair return. State regulators, however, lacked the wherewithal to audit this process. Their con cerns centered generally on whether local rates, irrespective of costs, were at a po litically acceptable level. Although federal regulators were better able to determine the reasonableness of the process and the resulting costs, they adopted an approach of "continuous surveillance" where, like the state regulator, the appearance of rea sonableness was what mattered. With the advent of competition, this historical costing predicate had to change. The Bell System, as well as the independents, were suddenly held accountable.




Irreversibility, Uncertainty, and Investment


Book Description

Irreversible investment is especially sensitive to such risk factors as volatile exchange rates and uncertainty about tariff structures and future cash flows. If the goal of macroeconomic policy is to stimulate investment, stability and credibility may be more important than tax incentives or interest rates.




Competitive Strategy


Book Description

A new paradigm for balancing flexibility and commitment in management strategy through the amalgamation of real options and game theory. Corporate managers who face both strategic uncertainty and market uncertainty confront a classic trade-off between commitment and flexibility. They can stake a claim by making a large capital investment today, influencing their rivals' behavior, or they can take a “wait and see” approach to avoid adverse market consequences tomorrow. In Competitive Strategy, Benoît Chevalier-Roignant and Lenos Trigeorgis describe an emerging paradigm that can quantify and balance commitment and flexibility, “option games,” by which the decision-making approaches of real options and game theory can be combined. The authors first discuss prerequisite concepts and tools from basic game theory, industrial organization, and real options analysis, and then present the new approach in discrete time and later in continuous time. Their presentation of continuous-time option games is the first systematic coverage of the topic and fills a significant gap in the existing literature. Competitive Strategy provides a rigorous yet pragmatic and intuitive approach to strategy formulation. It synthesizes research in the areas of strategy, economics, and finance in a way that is accessible to readers not necessarily expert in the various fields involved.




Stochastic Processes and Applications to Mathematical Finance


Book Description

This volume contains the contributions to a conference that is among the most important meetings in financial mathematics. Serving as a bridge between probabilists in Japan (called the Ito School and known for its highly sophisticated mathematics) and mathematical finance and financial engineering, the conference elicits the very highest quality papers in the field of financial mathematics.