Real Options
Managerial Flexibility and
Strategy in Resource Allocation
In the 1970s and the 1980s,
developments in the valuation of capital-investment opportunities based on options pricing
revolutionized capital budgeting. Managerial flexibility to adapt and revise future
decisions in order to capitalize on favorable future opportunities or to limit losses has
proven vital to long-term corporate success in an uncertain and changing marketplace.
In this path-breaking book
Lenos Trigeorgis, who has helped shape the field of real options, brings together a wealth
of previously scattered knowledge and research on the new flexibility in corporate
resource allocation and in the evaluation of investment alternatives. In comparison to
static cash-flow approaches, the more dynamic paradigm of real options incorporates
decisions on whether to defer, expand, contract, abandon, switch use, or otherwise alter a
capital investment.
Comprehensive in scope. Real
Options reviews current techniques of capital budgeting and details an approach (based on
the pricing of options) that provides a Means of quantifying the elusive elements of
managerial flexibility in the face of unexpected changes in the market. Also discussed are
the Strategic value of new technology, the interdependence of projects, and competitive
interaction.
The ability to value real
options has so dramatically altered the way in which corporate resources are
allocated that future textbooks on capital budgeting will bear little resemblance to those
of even the recent . past. Real Options is a pioneer in this area, coupling a coherent
picture of how option theory is used with practical insights into real-world applications.
Lenos Trigeorgis is
Professoir of'Finance at the University of Cyprus
"Discounted cash flow
understates value when flexibility matters, when decisions come in several stages (as in
R&D), and when investments are undertaken for strategic reasons. DCF misses the value
of real options. This book shows how real options can be identified and properly valued.
It is a big step toward application of option pricing concepts in practical corporate
finance."
Stewart C. Myers, Gordon Y.
Billard Professor of Finance, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
"The real options
approach to capital budgeting presented in this book represents a theoretically rigorous
integration of the older approaches of DCF analysis, decision trees, and Monte Carlo
simulation, allowing the analyst to handle uncertainty about future cash flows and future
decisions in a satisfactory manner for the first time. Trigeorgis's book is a simple and
effective introduction to this increasingly important area of applied corporate
finance."
Michael J. Brennan, Goldyne
and Irwin Hearsh Professor of Banking and Finance, Anderson School of Management, UCLA,
and Professor of Finance, London Business School
"Real Options is a lucid
account of the application of the insights and techniques of option pricing in enhancing
managerial flexibility in an ever-changing environment. Numerous hands-on examples
illustrate . how capital budgeting and strategic planning acquire a new dimension once the
embedded real options are taken into account. Written by So expert in the field, this
comprehensive and rigorous book is eminently readable. It will enrich the perspective of
any investment professional or | CEO who invests time in this brilliant book and reflects
on its message."
George M. Constantinides,
Leon Carroll Marshall Professor of Finance, University of Chicago
"This book is an
ambitious and thorough attempt by the author, who has done much of the breakthrough work
in this area, to bring together the scattered knowledge and research progress in real
options into a "comprehensive work that is both scholarly and applied. It is a
significant contribution to corporate finance, options, and capital budgeting. It will be
the bible of a field that has grown in importance to both academics and corporate resource
allocators."
Michael Edieson, Associate
Professor, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University
420 pages