Project Revenues Research Articles

Post-project financial auditing as a continuous improvement tool for SMEs

Post-project financial auditing is a critical tool for ensuring transparency, accountability, and financial accuracy within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). As SMEs navigate project-based operations, it is essential to assess the financial outcomes of completed projects to inform future decision-making and resource allocation. This review explores the role of post-project financial auditing as a continuous improvement tool in SMEs, highlighting its ability to enhance financial discipline, improve cost control, and promote long-term financial sustainability. By examining key aspects of project revenues, expenditures, and profitability, post-project financial audits provide insights into financial performance that are essential for strategic planning. These audits help identify budget deviations, resource misallocations, and cost inefficiencies, enabling SMEs to adjust future financial planning and project management practices. In doing so, audits contribute to refining budgeting processes, promoting data-driven decision-making, and reducing financial risks in subsequent projects. The review also emphasizes the benefits of post-project auditing in fostering a culture of financial responsibility within SMEs. Through the audit process, SMEs can strengthen internal controls, monitor compliance with financial regulations, and ensure that project outcomes align with organizational financial goals. Additionally, the integration of audit findings into future financial strategies enables SMEs to continuously improve their profitability, mitigate risks, and enhance overall financial stability. Despite the clear advantages, challenges such as resource constraints, data management issues, and limited audit expertise can hinder the adoption of post-project audits in SMEs. The review offers practical recommendations to address these challenges, advocating for the use of scalable audit frameworks, digital tools, and ongoing staff training to support effective auditing practices. Ultimately, post-project financial auditing represents a vital mechanism for driving continuous improvement and ensuring the financial resilience of SMEs in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Adaptive virtual team planning and coordination: a mathematical programming approach

Purpose The rise of remote work increasingly requires organizations to coordinate a single large, consolidated talent pool into ad-hoc, short-term project teams on demand. This problem involves many simultaneous considerations including project revenues and rejection costs, conflicting projects and roles, worker assignment costs, worker utilization preferences and limits, worker reassignment costs, and arbitrary role start and end times. Moreover, plans must be continuously updated in response to changing circumstances. This paper addresses the problem of dynamic virtual team planning and coordination. Design/methodology/approach We show this problem is NP-hard and provide a dynamic mixed integer linear programming (MILP) formulation for both optimal initial plan generation as well as continuous plan adjustment and re-optimization. We utilized a factorial experiment design to generate benchmark problems spanning a wide range of characteristics and conducted extensive computational experimentation using a common MILP solver. Findings Exactly optimal solutions to large, realistically sized problems were consistently obtained in short amounts of time. All observed solution times were sufficient to support the operational decision-making requirements of real-world virtual team coordination, demonstrating the viability of this approach. Practical implications The approach developed in this research can enable organizations to optimally coordinate virtual teams on a large scale and continually adjust plans in response to changing circumstances, all in an automated manner. Originality/value This paper addresses a new and complex problem of increasing importance to organizations due to the rise in remote work. We provide a problem formulation and exact approach for optimally solving both the planning and re-planning aspects of this problem.

Analisis Pengakuan Beban Kontrak Konstruksi Berdasarkan PSAK NO. 34 pada Perusahaan Jasa Konsultansi Konstruksi: Studi Kasus PT. Ravino Citra Mandiri

This study aims to analyze how the application and recognition of revenue and expenses in construction consulting service companies in accordance with PSAK No. 34 at PT Ravino Citra Mandiri. The data used for this research is secondary data in the form of records of PT Ravino Citra Mandiri's project expenses and revenues for the period July 2021 - December 2021. The method used for data collection is through interviews, observation and documentation. The data analysis technique uses qualitative analysis. The results showed that the application of PSAK No. 34 at PT Ravino Citra Mandiri was still not implemented in its entirety, where the recording was still carried out on a cash basis, but the recording and recognition of expenses was appropriate. The application of the work contract method is not yet appropriate, because the company only records using the cash basis system due to improper management so that the author presents a comparison if the recording is justified using the completed contract method and also the percentage of completion method, the percentage of completion method is used because the billing system carried out for the project uses a term system. The use of this method is considered by the company as a recording with a high accuracy value because it records all historical costs during the work of the work project compared to the completed contract which only records receipts and expenses for the work project.

Theoretical Foundation for Pricing Climate-Related Loss and Damage in Infrastructure Financing

This paper presents a novel theoretical framework for incorporating climate risks and adaptation investments into infrastructure debt pricing. Utilizing the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), the framework extends the conventional modeling of infrastructure project revenues and costs to include climate risk considerations. It proposes three climate-informed revenue and cost formulations: adjustmentment of mean and standard deviation, incorporation of extreme climate events via Pareto and Poisson distributions, and a climate-informed cost model that includes adaptation investment. The paper demonstrates the application of this model in pricing a loan for a Light Rail Transit project in Costa Rica, introducing the concepts of “flood risk premium” and “adaptation curves”. This study not only offers a novel lens through which to view infrastructure investment under climate uncertainty but also sets the stage for transformative policy and practice in financial risk assessment, encouraging a shift towards more sustainable and resilient infrastructure development.

Identification of Critical Success and Risk Factors for Public–Private Partnership Highway Projects

A recent growing delivery method used in highway projects is public–private partnerships (PPPs). PPPs are when public agencies collaborate with private parties for private financing at risk or operating services, which makes PPPs significantly different from other delivery methods used by public agencies—for example, design-bid-build, construction management at risk, and design-build. Despite the efforts of previous studies, questions remain unanswered: What are the contributing critical success factors that fit PPP highway projects? What are the risk factors that play key roles in PPP highway projects? This study aimed to address these questions through a Delphi study approach with the help of experienced professionals at state departments of transportation. Participants participated in interviews in the first round and completed a survey questionnaire in the second round of a Delphi study. After achieving an acceptable level of consensus from the first round of responses, the study identified and ranked the top critical success and risk factors for PPP highway projects. The study found that the top three critical success factors were (1) proper risk assessment and allocation to private parties; (2) realistic assessment of project estimates, risks, and revenues; and (3) avoidance of ambiguous language in contracts. In addition, the top risk factors identified were (1) revenue stream projections; (2) construction risks; and (3) design risks. The primary contribution of this research to the body of knowledge is to draw the attention of professionals in both industry and academia to the PPP highway industry, critical factors for PPP success and risks, and the successful completion of future PPP projects.

Тенденции развития флота морских технологических платформ в период 2015–2021 гг.

Object and purpose of research. This paper discusses marine oil and gas production platforms splitted into four types depending on their purpose. The study was intended to analyse the changes in global production platform fleet and outline the main trends in its development. Materials and methods. The study was based on the open-access data available with offshore field developers, oil and gas companies, shipyards and design offices. The methods in this study were acquisition, analysis and comparison of the data about the fleet of marine oil and gas production platforms. Main results. The paper presents the results of fleet composition analysis for floating oil and gas production platforms over the period of 2015–2021 characterized by the decline in global oil and gas prices. The study shows that the most common type of marine production platforms is FPSO (213 vessels). The strength of FPU and FPDSO fleets remains the same: 99 and 2 vessels respectively. Their geography has not changed either. The fleet of FLNGs has increased up to 7 ships since the commissioning of first FLNGs in 2014. Conclusion. FPSO platforms of various designs (mostly ship-type) offer high mobility and operational flexibility, i.e. greater project revenues and zero pipeline construction costs in case of remote field developments. It must be noted that water depths at FPSO locations have reached their record highs: 2900 m for production platforms and 3400 m for drilling ones. In future, floating platforms could be replaced by subsea production system but their massive introduction cannot be expected in at least 30–50 years to come.

Features of the methodology for assessing budget efficiency investment pro-jects

The analysis of current regulations shows that only a few indicators (budgetary effect) are used to assess the budget efficiency of investment projects in Ukraine, and the decision on financing is not made from it. As a result, it is necessary to raise the issue of introducing an additional system of indicators for assessing the effectiveness of investment projects, which characterize the return on investment of budget funds. Thus, the purpose of this study is to develop proposals for improving the methodology for assessing the budget effectiveness of investment projects. The main indicator for assessing the effectiveness of projects that provide state or regional financial support is the budgetary effect. Budget effect is the main indicator of budget efficiency used to justify the decision to finance the project, which is often defined as the difference between inflows and outflows of budget funds, taking into account discounting. The paper proposes to introduce additional indicators to assess the budget efficiency of the investment project, in addition to the payback period of state support. Absolute budget effect. which will be calculated in the form of two indicators: taking into account and without taking into account loans to banks under government guarantees. This calculation is justified, as the budget effect may be understated by including bank loans in the definition of this indicator, while the state budget may not incur costs under its guarantee obligations. Absolute budgetary effect, which characterizes the total amount of funds that the country's budget will receive as a result of the project. Relative budget effect, which characterizes the ratio of budget investments to the investment project and additional revenues to the budget. Budget profitability – shows how many monetary units the project implementation brings per unit of budget funds spent. Due to the fact that this indicator is based on the indicator of the absolute budgetary effect, the calculation of this indicator will be calculated taking into account and without taking into account bank loans issued under government guarantees. The authors have developed some modifications to the calculations for assessing the budget efficiency of investment projects, as well as the calculation of indicators of budget efficiency of projects that characterize the return on investment: absolute budget effect, relative budget effect (indirect and direct), budget profitability.

Investment appraisal: Akwaaba university hostel project

Learning outcomes After completing this case, students should be able to: identify and compute relevant cash flows in relation to a real estate project and compute the net present value (NPV). Determine the target return or cost of capital (by looking at historical economic indicators). Design or formulate a sensitivity analysis to determine the drivers of the project value. Evaluate real estate and other investments taking qualitative and quantitative factors into consideration. Demonstrate the computation of a break-even rate to determine the minimum or maximum revenue or cost required for a project to be viable. Case overview/synopsis This case study is about the Golden Beak Securities Pension Fund that wanted to invest in a Hostel Project in one of the universities in Ghana. Most universities in Ghana faced an acute shortage of on-campus accommodation. Also, the Government of Ghana, in 2017, implemented a programme to make Senior High School in Ghana free. This was expected to increase the number of students who will enter the existing universities. The project was therefore seen as strategic, as it would help ease the pressure of on-campus accommodation while providing diversification for the pension fund. As part of the investment committee’s (IC) quest to improve the skill set available to it, especially in relation to real estate investments, Esi Abebrese was appointed as one of the members of the IC of GSB. Her main task was to collect information on key macroeconomic variables, as well as granular information on project costs and revenues and conduct investment appraisal. Esi was scheduled to make a presentation to the IC on the 15th of October 2019 following which the Committee will debate and make a decision. The project had an estimated cost of GH¢52m with a total number of 3,424 student beds and ancillary facilities. Undertaking the project required moving funds from investments in money market securities with one of the banks in Ghana. The investments in the money market securities were currently yielding about 16% a year. The determination of the cost of capital was critical and Esi and Nana eventually settled on a long-term weighted average cost of capital of 14%. This was after considering the trend of inflation, monetary policy rates, treasury rates, stock market returns and a report on returns on commercial real estate properties in Ghana. An exit capitalisation rate of 20% was also estimated for the purposes of determining the value of the property at the end of the investment horizon. Esi also obtained estimates of cost and revenue for the project and proceeded to carry out a feasibility analysis on the project. This consisted of an NPV analysis and sensitivity analysis on various factors to determine the drivers of the project value. The IC had to take several factors (both quantitative and qualitative) into consideration before making a decision. Esi believed that these factors included the diversification of the fund’s assets, the return on investment, potential oversupply of hostel accommodation, the social responsibility of providing student accommodation and the impact of any prolonged shutdown of the university. Complexity academic level Masters/advanced undergraduate. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

Explaining successful and failed investments in U.S. carbon capture and storage using empirical and expert assessments

Most studies of deep decarbonization find that a diverse portfolio of low-carbon energy technologies will be required, including carbon capture and storage (CCS) that mitigates emissions from fossil fuel power plants and industrial sources. While many projects essential to commercializing the technology have been proposed, most (>80%) end in failure. Here we analyze the full universe of CCS projects attempted in the U.S. that have sufficient documentation (N=39)—the largest sample ever studied systematically. We quantify 12 project attributes that the literature has identified as possible determinants of project outcome. In addition to costs and technological readiness, which prior research has emphasized, we develop metrics for attributes that are widely thought to be important yet have eluded systematic measurement, such as the credibility of project revenues and policy incentives, and the role of regulatory complexity and public opposition. We build three models—two statistical and one derived through the elicitation of expert judgment—to evaluate the relative influence of these 12 attributes in explaining project outcome. Across models, we find the credibility of revenues and incentives to be among the most important attributes, along with capital cost and technological readiness. We therefore develop and elicit experts’ judgment of 14 types of policy incentives that could alter these attributes and improve the prospects for investment in CCS. Knowing which attributes have been most responsible for past successes and failures allows developers to avoid past mistakes and identify clusters of near-term CCS projects that are more likely to succeed.

The sustainability of a nutrition-sensitive agriculture intervention: a case study from urban Senegal

The sustainability of nutrition-sensitive agriculture projects has been identified as a research gap, and there is limited research available examining such initiatives in an urban context. We examine the sustainability of a nutrition-sensitive agriculture project implemented in Dakar, Senegal. It included provision of two “microgarden” tables, a henhouse, chickens, inputs, training, and education on nutrition and hygiene. This study was conducted 18 months after the project's end and sought to assess the intervention’s sustainability via a survey and in-depth interviews with former project participants. The microgarden tables had poor sustainability: only 5% of respondents continued to use them to grow vegetables. Most of those who continued saw it as a hobby, not a main productive activity. In contrast, 75% continued poultry-rearing activities, and 20% had more chickens than provided by the project. Some former participants had switched to more lucrative models of chicken production, with sales being more common than during the project and considerable revenues earned. This ability to earn income from chicken sales was the dominant motivator of continued production. Nutrition knowledge and practices remained at or near project levels. We discuss lessons for the sustainability of nutrition-sensitive agriculture more generally. These include that in the absence of project-provided incentives, some dis-adoption should be expected; in an urban area, improving incomes may be more relevant than improving production; and behavior change communication likely needs to be re-enforced over time to ensure sustainable changes in nutrition knowledge among parents of young children.

Lunar Mission One: A New Funding Model for Exploration

Lunar Mission One directly addresses the key issue of how to fund the expensive endeavor that is space exploration. It brings together, internationally and inspirationally, the resources and aspirations of government, industry, and most importantly citizens. Its robotic mission will land at the lunar south pole and drill deep for geological science. It will also take measurements of the surface environment to assist decisions on a future manned base. As well as advancing precision landing and robotics, it will develop key technology that will enable remote deep drilling for the search for life on other planetary bodies. The mission's program will be commercially managed by industry, including its design, its build, and its operation. But it will be performed under government authority. This facilitates the legal issues and also helps to merge it into the global exploration program of international space agencies, giving them greater options for their planning. It is a new form of Public/Private Partnership for space, in which government contributes financial security and support for key public benefits and in return sees a substantial injection of nongovernment funding from outside the space sector. That funding derives from the mission depositing an epic record of life on Earth down the borehole where, thanks to the exceptional environmental conditions, it could survive a geological timescale, awaiting discovery far into the future. People will pay to include their personal information, especially their DNA stored by a single strand of hair, with a mix of imagination and reality and leading to the project's revenues. The archive will contain a digital encyclopedia based on Wikipedia, to which schools can contribute local information and so facilitate the teaching of history and culture, of wildlife and the environment. A global pilot program is underway to develop and test the ideas for how best to achieve this inclusively for all cultures, ages, and abilities. A number of universities have started student projects in a wide range of areas. Local Chapters of enthusiastic volunteers in all continents are supporting our public engagement, assisted by an online collaboration platform. Lunar Mission One's market research suggested that the project will make a significant financial surplus, all to go to a nonprofit trust as a future legacy for the future space exploration.

Project Financing Models for Toll Road Investments: A State-of-the-Art Literature Review

In greenfield toll-road projects, financial sustainability has been a major issue. Many toll roads cannot be operated. Although most of Indonesia's 24 toll road concessions have already been signed by the Toll Road Authority, most of them were caused by financing problems. Three problems have been identified as potential sources of this unsustainability, such as the uncertainty of long-term project revenues, budget constraints provided by the government, and inadequate government support for land acquisitions. This paper aims to investigate the state-of-the-art innovative financing models recently introduced to address financial problems by using a desk study and meta-analysis. The findings are an earmarked tax revenue system, deep discount bonds, take-out financing, tax increment financing, land leases, deferred debts, and private donations.

Paying for affordable housing in different market contexts

This study analysed recently completed affordable housing developments across Australia to ascertain how affordable housing project costs, revenues and subsidies interact. The research reveals the diverse funding arrangements adopted by providers, which have resulted in affordable housing project outcomes being driven by funding opportunities rather than by defined housing needs, and identified six key lessons about financing affordable housing.

Revenue assessment and visualisation of photovoltaic projects on building envelopes

Abstract Increased environmental and economic awareness, coupled with local government incentives, means that solar energy applications in buildings are crucial to sustainable urban development and commercial energy investment. Considering the large available areas on building rooftops and walls, and the application of building-integrated photovoltaic products, previous research has paid extensive attention to solar radiation estimation for roofs and vertical walls. This paper proposes a developed pixel method integrated with Net Present Value (NPV) analysis and applies the measurement to 3D visualisation of the revenue distribution of potential PV projects on building surfaces, including vertical and non-vertical facades. A building model derived from a real student accommodation building is then chosen as a case study in this paper. The developed algorithm extracts data built in SketchUp, exports instantaneous shadow images and estimates solar energy potential over building surfaces for each pixel unit. Coloured 3D radiation maps illustrate the distribution of solar energy potential on roofs and facades. 3D contour lines with NPVs are introduced to visually conduct PV installation strategies with desirable revenues over project lifetimes. The results reveal that facade installation is also worthwhile, as the corresponding project revenues are competitive with rooftop installation during specific periods. This study will benefit designers and construction managers in determining the optimal solution for implementing solar rooftop and facade systems in the design and construction phases.

Project Customization and the Supplier Revenue–Cost Dilemmas: The Critical Roles of Supplier–Customer Coordination

This study examines customization as a coordination problem in transactions with business customers. Marketing research has investigated challenges associated with customized offers from the customer side; however, scant research has examined the supplier's challenges and their performance implications. The authors distinguish between project revenues and costs to reveal a fundamental dilemma that suppliers face during customization. Analyses of dyadic survey data collected from a software supplier and its business customers, as well as objective revenue and cost data, reveal a tension between project revenues and costs. The outcomes of customization depend on factors that relieve the coordination problem, such as customer demand ambiguity, customer participation, product modularity, project team technological capability, and relational embeddedness. These findings provide a basis to assess the value of customization as a tool to implement a customer-oriented business-to-business marketing strategy.

Experimentation and project selection: Screening and learning

Firms must strike a delicate balance between the exploitation of well-known business models and the exploration of risky, untested approaches. In this paper, we study financial contracting between an investor and a firm with private information about its returns from exploration and exploitation. The investor-optimal mechanism offers contracts with different tolerance for failures to screen returns from exploitation, and with different exposure to the project's revenues to screen returns from exploration. We derive necessary and sufficient conditions for private information about returns from exploration to have zero value to the firm. When these conditions fail, private information about exploration may even decrease the firm's payoff.

Techno-economic analysis of municipal solid waste gasification for electricity generation in Brazil

The key objective of this paper is to analyze the techno-economic feasibility of this alternative for the Brazilian municipalities, classified according to population subgroups, using this parameter as a basis for the calculation of the municipal solid waste generated, the project costs and revenues. Different expenses were taken into consideration, like equipments and installation costs, operation and maintenance costs and the interest rate of the investment. In relation to revenues, they come from of the sale of electricity, the incomes of the recyclable materials, the fees paid by the Brazilian municipalities for the disposal of municipal solid waste in sanitary landfills and incomes by the carbon credits. An analysis of each population subgroup, combining three different economical scenarios was done, with an annual rate of interests of 10.58% for Scenario 1, 7.5% for Scenario 2 and 15% for Scenario 3. The economic feasibility was evaluated using as economic indicators the net present value and the internal rate of return. The net present value was positive for the municipalities with more than 60,714 inhabitants for the Scenario 1, 34,203 for Scenario 2 and 259,845 for Scenario 3. A hypothetic gasification plant is capable to generate 905kW/ton municipal solid waste for a population of 60,714 inhabitants (Scenario 1), 794kW/ton municipal solid waste for a population of 34,203 inhabitants (Scenario 2) and 1065kW/ton municipal solid waste for a population of 259,845 inhabitants (Scenario 3). It is concluded that the economic feasibility increases with the installation of bigger units, showing a positive scale up gains, therefore as higher the capacity of the installation lower the specific costs and higher are the benefits.

Managing open innovation projects with science-based and market-based partners

This paper examines the relationship between (outside-in) open innovation and the financial performance of R&D projects, drawing on a unique dataset that contains information on the open innovation practices, management and performance of 489 R&D projects of a large European multinational firm. We introduce two types of open innovation partnerships – science-based and market-based partnerships – and examine their relationships with project financial performance. In addition, we investigate whether the open innovation—project performance relationships are influenced by the way how R&D projects are managed. Our results show that R&D projects with open innovation partnerships are associated with a better financial performance providing that they are managed in the most suitable way. Market-based partnerships are positively correlated with project performance if a formal project management process is used; however these partnerships are associated with a lower performance for loosely managed projects. In contrast, science-based partnerships are associated with higher project revenues for loosely managed projects only.

Chinese contractors in developing countries

This paper uses turnover data from Chinese contracted projects in as many as 87 low and lower middle income countries from 1998 to 2009. Economic fundamentals motivate Chinese contractor presence in developing countries as their revenues are positively associated with countries’ per capita income and expected growth. All else equal, contractor project revenues are higher in countries with stronger political rights regimes. Moreover, the estimated positive effect of improvements in political freedom is largest among countries with high fuel endowment, but lowest among countries with high ores and metals endowments. Conclusions relating Chinese contractor activities, perceptions on the level corruption, and resource endowment among sub-Saharan African countries must remain tentative as the estimated relationships are sensitive to the corruption indices used.

Why Crowdfunding Projects Can Succeed: The Role of Proponents’ Individual and Territorial Social Capital

Purpose – Crowdfunding implies mobilizing the crowd to finance projects which are posted on dedicated websites, known as crowdfunding platforms. Funding is provided by web users in exchange for some claims on the project revenues, or for a reward, or simply for donation. In this paper, we aim at learning more on what determines the probability of a project to reach the target funding. We apply the lens of social capital, defined by the goodwill available to her/him from the structure and content of his/her social relations (Adler and Kwon 2002). In particular we distinguish between ‘individual’ (exclusive) and ‘territorial’ (locally shared) social capital. Design/methodology/approach – We test our hypotheses by running Probit estimates on a sample of 461 crowdfunding projects posted by 699 proponents and hosted on 11 Italian crowdfunding platforms. The focal dependent variables deal with the individual social capital and geographically localized social capital. The former is proxied by the number of contacts of proponents on digital social networks (i.e. Facebook). To account for the latter, we refer to the municipality of residence of each proponent and resort to the traditional measure of localized social capital used in the literature. We control also for a set of project-specific variables. Originality/value –This methodology puts in evidence that in a framework with information asymmetry individual social capital (ISC) is positively and significantly correlated with the probability of success of a crowdfunding project, providing a positive signal to crowdfunders. On the contrary, we do not find any significant correlation with the diffused territorial social capital (TSC). By jointly considering the impact of ISC and TSC, we find that TSC weakens the signal provided by ISC. We posit that such result is a consequence of an ‘adverse-selection’ problem. Good-quality projects may more easily collect money on a territorial basis if TSC is large. Therefore crowdfunding projects originated in large-TSC milieus ceteris paribus are less easily financed by crowdfunders. Practical implications – Our work has interesting managerial implications. Individual social capital impacts on the success of crowdfunding projects and interacts with geolocalized territorial social capital. Accordingly, proponents, funders and managers of crowdfunding platforms who are interested in selecting potentially successful projects must consider such interaction, and carefully evaluate both individual and territorial social capital.