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Until now, classic investment appraisal approaches have exclusively focused on financial success. However, with the rising interest in and need to deal with sustainability, social and ecological aspects have to be considered in investment decisions. The aim of this paper is to present a systematically developed and applicable investment appraisal model, that will not only include financial aspects, but will cover sustainability issues as well by applying the concept of the triple bottom line. Thus, eight controlling and sustainability experts coming from backgrounds of academia and departments of small to medium sized companies in Germany were questioned in semi-structured interviews regarding their perceptions and requirements for a sustainability driven investment calculation model. As a result, there was no common consensus about how to integrate sustainability into an investment evaluation. Even though, sustainability is anchored in the strategy of many companies, clear guidance on planning and control are often missing. The interviewees expressed a need for a simple calculation model adoptable to each company's strategy making it flexible in terms of inclusion of sustainability factors and in weighing up between economic success and sustainability. Literature review and interview results lead to a systematic four-step framework. A materiality analysis will be used to detect relevant financial, ecological, and social features addressed by a potential investment. These features will be listed, measured, and ranked. By applying this approach, a multi-dimensional investment strength profile can be created for each investment alternative. This will then be forming the base for the ability to make solid investment decisions based on the triple bottom line. This paper presents an approach that needs to undergo further testing in practice for it to be verified as a generic framework. Further research is also needed to develop instruments particularly for social features to allow a more precise measurement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German dairy industry produces vast quantities of dairy products, which are to a large extent sold through food retailers. The big retail chains in particular wield a great bargaining power due to their market penetration. Furthermore, as a net exporter, the German dairy industry produces more units in Germany than it sells there. This means that the dairies' prices necessarily get under pressure. According to Simon and Faßnacht as well as Meffert, the effective sales price is to be regarded as the most crucial profit driver. The pricing policy also influences capacity utilization, the entire value chain and the liquidity of the company (Simon and Faßnacht, 2016). This clearly demonstrates that revenue controlling is of the highest relevance for the German dairy industry. Instruments and methods have been developed in theory and practice to facilitate revenue controlling. These include, for example, annual turnover/sales planning, the price scale for assessing sales deductions, contribution margin calculations for analysing the profitability of company divisions, customers and products, as well as deviation analyses regarding turnover, sales volume, prices, contribution margins and costs (Gleich et al. 2016, Weber 2018 and Pepels 2019). In order to identify the status quo of revenue controlling in the German dairy industry as well as possibilities for improvement, this empirical study was carried out. Based on a literature review and analysis of previous studies, research gaps were identified and research questions and an appropriate research methodology were derived. The research question "What is the status quo of revenue controlling in the German dairy industry and what are the possibilities for improvement?" was divided into two sub-questions: a) How high is the status and professionalism of revenue controlling in the companies to be assessed? b) What possibilities for improvement exist regarding organization and implementation? In line with the research objectives, expert interviews were chosen as methodology for the research to gain as much insights as possible. The topic is not very well researched, so a qualitative approach seemed the most appropriate. Seven interviews with senior executives (CFOs, heads of Controlling) were conducted on the basis of a structured interview guideline. Based on the transcription of the interviews, categories were derived and defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese Foreign Direct Investments in Germany have been discussed controversially in German Mass Media. Based on the analysis of previous studies and literature review this paper attempts to gain in an insight-view on the real situation in German companies after a takeover by a Chinese investor. The lead research question is: „What impact does Chinese direct investment have on company-specific factors and the development of the German investment target?" A qualitative approach is applied by conducting expert interviews in companies concerned. The results are interesting and promising too, all companies have described their previous cooperation with the Chinese investor as positive and a win-win situation and expect it to continue in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Internationalisation of capital markets as well as (cross-border) mergers and acquisitions are just two reasons for the need to determine the cost-of-capital rates of companies. Cost-of-capital rates are also needed to calculate imputed interest and to carry out investment appraisal calculations and to implement value-based management. Cost-of-capital rates consist of cost of debt and cost of equity, usually calculated as weighted average cost of capital (WACC). To determine the cost of debt is a lot easier as the cost of equity since in almost every case the conditions of credit contracts and bonds are based on contracts and hence legally binding. While stock-listed companies are able to use capital market oriented methods to determine their cost of equity such as Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) or Arbitrage Pricing Theory (APT) other companies -- such as SMEs - have to follow different approaches. Existing literature on cost of equity capital focuses on calculation methods for large companies, which also still demand further research. Moreover, practical links literature seems to be rather rare. The aim of this paper is to develop and to present a framework to determine the cost of equity for SMEs with a focus on Internationalisation. As this paper discusses the cost of equity capital in the context of SMEs, the concept of SMEs needs to be defined and characterized. Despite the economic significance of SMEs, until now, there is no uniform definition of SMEs. In science and business practice several concepts have been established in order to distinguish SMEs from other companies. Basically, those approaches can be divided into quantitative and qualitative definition concepts. Based on recent publications on SMEs a combination of quantitative criteria to demarcate SMEs from microenterprises and qualitative criteria to distinguish them from large-scale companies is derived. Regarding an investment, the cost of capital represents the rate of return on capital employed expected by the corresponding investors. Consequently, an investment at least has to meet this expectation of return in order to attract capital. From the investors' perspective the cost of capital has the characteristics of opportunity costs. By allocating capital to a specific investment, they forego providing capital to alternative investments with comparable risk structure and duration and therefore also relinquish the related returns. With growing risk the expected return and hence the cost of capital increases. From the company perspective the cost of capital represents the minimum rate of return expected as adequate compensation by the providers of equity and debt capital. Hence, the company cost of capital is divided into cost of equity and cost of debt, representing the expected returns of lenders and investors in isolation. Since the cost of debt can be calculated easily this papers focuses on the cost of equity. Based on literature review and the analysis of a number of studies the paper displays also the design and the results of a study and a case study in Baden- Württemberg. The study focuses on the degree of application of cost of capital calculations in SMEs and the methods used to determine the cost of equity. It also shows the relevance of the topic to SMEs especially to larger ones with an international focus. The paper presents and discusses several approaches to determine the cost of equity for SMEs, quantitative and qualitative approaches. A special focus is given on specific risks for SMEs and specific risks out of internationalisation. Out of the presented framework methods for the individual use case can be chosen to follow a mixed-methods approach. Areas for further research are manifold in this domain. Further research could focus on larger samples in order to gain validity. Comparative case studies could reveal interesting aspects of the practical implementation in different firms. The publication of further case studies could help practitioners to cope with the issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Bernd Britzelmaier, Brigitte Eller Physicians are required, due to economical, financial, competitive, demographical and market-induced framework conditions, to pay increasing attention to the entrepreneurial administration of their offices. Because of restructuring policies throughout the public health system - on the grounds of increasing financing problems - more and better transparency of costs will be indispensable in all fields of medical activities in the future. The more cost-conscious public health insurance institutions or other public health funds will need professional cost accounting systems, which will provide, for minimum maintenance expense, standardised basis cost information as a device for decision.