Capital budgeting is one of the most important decisions that face the financial
manager. Prior studies spanning the past four decades show financial managers prefer methods such as internal rate of return or non-discounted payback models over net present value; the model academics consider superior. This interesting anomaly has long been a puzzle to the academic community. A recent survey of the Fortune 1000 Chief Financial Officers finds net present value to be the most preferred tool over internal rate of return and all other capital budgeting tools. While most financial managers utilize multiple tools in the capital budgeting process, these results better reflect the alignment of the academic and business view.