The organisational competences that an enterprise uses in its operations potentially define its capacity for implementing its business strategy. The present paper proposes a process for the analysis of investment projects based on competences. The study is focused on small enterprises, and it is applied to capacity expansion projects. The developed approach is based on a theoretical framework refined through a round of interviews conducted with experienced professionals. Three investment analysts and three academics that work in the strategic operations management and economic production management areas participated in the interviews. The developed process was tested in simulation studies using the results of three investment projects analyzed by a development bank in the period of March 2002 to September 2003. The cases are related to manufacturing, commerce, and service sectors. The result of this work is an investment analysis process that uses the enterprise competences concept to evaluate its capability to generate results. The process relates resources and competences to the adopted business strategy. The study nature is exploratory and, in this sense, it does not allow generalizations. It is necessary to increase the number of simulations and to test the process using different investment analysts. The major practical implication is related to the fact that a structured procedure was proposed for the analysis of investment projects for small companies due to the difficulty of obtaining accurate and reliable financial and economic information about those companies. This study contributes to the development of methodologies for the analysis of investment projects based on a strategic approach.
Investment analysis; Project management; Business strategy; Resource based theory; Enterprise competences; Operations strategy
