Investment appraisal techniques underlying Ghanaian oil marketing companies investment decisions, a case of Goil Company Limited

Abstract

Firms’ investment appraisal techniques have become a great area of interest to both academics and practitioners alike. For instance, common opinion among scholars and practitioners is that, a business future success and sustenance largely depend on its ability to get its present investment decisions right. This means that, the decisions inherent to investments are critical to the growth and sustenance of every company be it a private or public entity. Accordingly, this study looked into the investment appraisal techniques that underly Ghanaian Oil Marketing Companies investment decisions. Specifically, the objectives of the study were; to identify the investment appraisal methods used by Goil Ghana in its investment decisions, to identify the main factors that influence Goil Ghana management in the selection of a particular investment appraisal technique and lastly, to investigate the degree of association between Goil Ghana organizational variables (firm size, CEO education and age of the company) and their usage of modern investment appraisal techniques. This study adopted a cross-sectional research study design as such, questionnaire was used as the main data collection tool. The target population for the study came from workers Goil Ghana employees within the Kumasi metropolis who occupied top management position. The study employed probability sampling technique thus, simple random sampling to select the study samples. The study’s data was analyzed on the basis of descriptive statistics and simple linear regression analysis. Findings from the study suggest that to a large extent Goil Ghana Company Limited did not extensively employed most of the available investment appraisal methods to guide its investment decisions. Accordingly, it is recommended to the management of Goil Ghana as a matter of urgency to adopt more of existing investment appraisal methods into its investment decisions since every tool has its own strength and weaknesses as such, employing varied forms of investment appraisal tools will enable the organization achieve optimal results from its investment outcomes.