BUS 960 Capital Budgeting Research Project Guide: Topics, Paper Structure, Analysis, Tips & Example

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By Dan Palmer, MBA · Academic strategy consultant for working adult learners

If you’re working full time, managing a family, and staring at a blank document for your BUS 960 research project, this guide is built to get you from zero to a workable plan fast. It follows your actual BUS 960 assignment instructions section by section: how to pick a topic you can realistically finish in six weeks, how to turn that topic into a real research question, how to run a literature review without reading forty papers, how to apply and interpret capital budgeting techniques, and how to structure both the 8–10 page paper and the 10–12 minute presentation.

A complete model example, in APA 7 Word and PowerPoint format, is linked near the end so you can see the finished shape before you start writing your own.

A note on originality. Your BUS 960 project is graded on the depth and originality of your own analysis (30% of your grade, the single largest category). A generic explanation of NPV or a topic copied from an example isn’t research; it’s a summary. Use this guide for structure, and the attached model example for format, but build your actual topic, data, and findings from your own thinking.

BUS 960 Capital Budgeting Research Project Assignment Prompt

Overview:

In the BUS 960: Capital Budgeting course, you will complete a research project that allows you to explore a capital budgeting topic in depth. While time is limited, you are encouraged to tackle emerging issues, propose modifications to existing techniques, or critically analyze underexplored aspects of capital budgeting. The goal is to deepen your understanding of advanced concepts while contributing meaningful insights.

Objectives:

• Explore and address open or emerging problems within capital
• Apply advanced capital budgeting techniques while exploring potential modifications or innovations.
• Present your findings through a research paper and a professional-level recorded presentation.

Deliverables:

You will submit two key components:

1. Research Paper: A concise, original analysis of a specific capital budgeting
2. Video Presentation: A recorded presentation summarizing your key findings for an academic or industry audience.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Identify a Research Topic or Problem

Choose a topic that reflects both your interest and relevance to capital budgeting. Given the short timeframe, focus on topics that can be analyzed within six weeks. Possible directions include:

• Exploring an emerging trend: How are digital technologies (e.g., AI, blockchain) affecting capital budgeting decisions?
• Addressing challenges in sustainability: How can sustainability or ESG factors be better integrated into investment decision-making models?
• Modifying capital budgeting techniques: How can traditional methods (e.g., NPV, IRR) be adjusted to account for contemporary risks or uncertainties?
• Risk in international projects: How should firms adjust capital budgeting practices for projects in volatile or politically unstable regions?

2. Review of Literature and Framing the Problem

• Conduct a targeted review of current research to identify gaps or limitations in existing capital budgeting This could include scholarly papers, industry reports, or case studies.
• Frame your project within this existing literature, emphasizing how your research will contribute to or address the identified gaps.

Deliverable: Include a 2-3 page literature review in your final paper, showing an understanding of both traditional methods and current challenges in capital budgeting.

3. Apply and Modify Capital Budgeting Techniques

Use capital budgeting techniques learned in the course, with the option to explore innovative applications or modifications. Consider the following:

• Traditional Techniques: Apply core methods (e.g., NPV, IRR, Payback Period) to your chosen problem but consider how they can be adjusted to better handle uncertainty, risk, or new variables.
• Sensitivity and Scenario Analysis: Conduct sensitivity analysis or scenario modeling to evaluate the robustness of your investment decisions under different conditions.
• Emerging Techniques: Explore the use of advanced tools like Monte Carlo simulation or real options theory, if applicable to your problem.

4. Risk and Ethical Considerations

Address risk management and ethical considerations as they pertain to your chosen topic. This could include:

• Adjusting discount rates for risk, particularly in international or volatile
• Evaluating the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) implications of investment decisions, particularly in sectors where sustainability is

5. Prepare a Research Paper

Your paper should be concise but demonstrate rigorous analysis and clear insights. Suggested structure:

• Introduction: Define the research problem or
• Literature Review: Summarize relevant research and position your study within this context.
• Methodology: Explain the capital budgeting techniques and any modifications you applied.
• Analysis: Present your findings, including cash flow forecasts, risk assessments, and sensitivity analyses.
• Conclusion: Summarize key insights and their implications for capital budgeting practices.

Length: 8-10 pages (excluding references and appendices).

6. Create a Professional Presentation
   • Prepare a 10-12 minute recorded presentation summarizing your This should be structured as a presentation suitable for an academic or industry audience, focusing on key findings and implications.
   • Your slides should be clear, professional, and enhance your spoken presentation. Include charts, models, and other visuals to support your

Submission Deadline: Submit your research paper and video presentation by the last day of the course.

Suggested Research Tracks (Optional):

While the scope is limited by the course duration, the following tracks may help guide your project:

• Technology in Capital Budgeting: How can AI and big data improve the accuracy of cash flow forecasting or risk management?
• Sustainability: How do current capital budgeting techniques fall short in integrating sustainability, and how could they be improved?
• International Capital Budgeting: What are the unique risks of international projects, and how can firms better account for political and currency risks?
• Capital Rationing and Strategic Investment: How should firms prioritize investment projects when resources are severely limited?

Evaluation Criteria:

Your project will be assessed based on:

• Research Depth and Originality (30%): Depth of analysis and the novelty of your approach to the problem.
• Application of Techniques (30%): Correct and innovative use of capital budgeting techniques, including any modifications or extensions.
• Research and Integration (20%): How well your work fits within existing literature and addresses identified gaps.
• Presentation Quality (20%): Clarity and professionalism of your video

BUS 960 Worked Examples

MODEL EXAMPLE — FOR LEARNING AND STRUCTURAL GUIDANCE ONLY. Not an official BUS 960 answer key; do not submit unchanged. Fictitious company and illustrative data throughout. Need help with your own BUS 960 project?  WhatsApp Us on: +1 (564) 544-6924.

BUS960_Model_Research_Project_Example Click to Download

BUS960_Model_Presentation_Example Click to Download

BUS 960 Assignment at a Glance

Read this table once and you’ll understand the whole assignment in under five minutes.

What BUS 960 Is Really Asking You to Do

Strip away the academic language and your project has to answer five practical questions, in this order:

1. What problem am I researching? A specific, narrow capital budgeting issue, not “capital budgeting” as a whole.
2. What does existing research say? Where the traditional techniques come from and what current literature says about their limits.
3. What gap, limitation, or problem have I identified? The specific thing existing research hasn’t fully resolved.
4. What capital budgeting technique can I apply or modify? NPV, IRR, sensitivity analysis, scenario analysis, or a more advanced tool, applied to your specific problem.
5. What does my analysis demonstrate? What your calculations actually show, and what that means for how the decision should be made.

The assignment is explicit that this is a research project, not a textbook summary. There’s a real difference between these two framings:

Weak approach: “Explain NPV and IRR.”

Stronger research approach: “Investigate whether traditional NPV analysis adequately accounts for uncertainty in technology investment decisions, and evaluate how scenario analysis can improve investment decision-making.”

The second version works because it names a specific technique, a specific context, and a specific question about whether something works well enough, exactly the shape Research Depth and Originality (30% of your grade) is evaluating.

How to Choose a Research Topic Fast

Do not spend days searching for the perfect topic. Your assignment gives you six weeks total, and the topic-selection stage should take an afternoon, not a week.

The 5-Minute Topic Test

A topic is workable if you can answer yes to all six:

• Is it directly related to capital budgeting, not general finance or strategy?
• Is it narrow enough to cover in 8–10 pages?
• Is there existing academic literature you can find and cite?
• Can you realistically analyze it within six weeks around a full-time job?
• Does it fit a technique you already know, NPV, IRR, payback, sensitivity analysis, scenario analysis, or something more advanced if you have time?
• Can you state it as one specific research question, not a broad theme?

If a topic fails two or more of these, narrow it or pick a different one before you invest more time.

10 Realistic BUS 960 Research Topics

Not every topic needs an advanced technique. A well-executed NPV and sensitivity analysis on a narrow, well-chosen question will outperform a poorly executed Monte Carlo simulation every time. Match the technique to your topic and your available time, not the other way around.

How to Turn a Topic into a Research Question

A topic is not a research question. The path looks like this:

Topic → Problem → Research Question → Method → Findings

Notice the pattern: every improved question names a technique, a context, and a comparison or measurable outcome. If your draft research question could apply to ten different projects without changing a word, it’s still a topic, not a question.

Literature Review Without Wasting Time

Your paper needs a 2–3 page literature review. You do not need to read dozens of papers to write one well.

Step 1. Identify the core capital budgeting concept your topic touches (NPV, IRR, risk-adjustment, real options, and so on).

Step 2. Search for recent peer-reviewed research on that concept combined with your specific angle (AI, ESG, international risk, and so on). Google Scholar, your university library database, and journal sites are all faster than a general web search for this.

Step 3. Identify how the traditional approach works, in one or two sentences per source.

Step 4. Identify what each source says the traditional approach doesn’t fully address.

Step 5. Identify the specific gap your own project will focus on, based on what you found in Step 4.

Step 6. Connect that gap directly to your research question, explicitly, not by implication.

A literature review that just lists sources reads as a summary, not a review:

Poor: “Smith (2022) studied NPV. Jones (2023) studied IRR. Brown (2024) studied risk.”

Better synthesis: Explain what multiple sources collectively reveal, a shared limitation, a disagreement, or a gap none of them fully closes, rather than describing each source in isolation.

Use a simple matrix to organize your sources before you start writing prose:

Fill this in for each source first. The synthesis paragraph almost writes itself once the matrix is complete, because you can see the patterns across rows instead of writing one paragraph per source.

Capital Budgeting Techniques: What to Use and When

You don’t need to master every technique below. You need to understand the ones relevant to your topic well enough to apply them and explain what a time-constrained student can realistically execute.

How to Apply Capital Budgeting Techniques in the Paper

Whichever techniques you choose, your Analysis section needs to show the full chain, not just a final number.

NPV

State the initial investment, the expected cash flows (and how you arrived at them), the discount rate and its justification, terminal value if applicable, the NPV calculation itself, and, most importantly, an interpretation of what the result means for the investment decision.

Sensitivity Analysis

Show how NPV changes when you vary one assumption at a time, discount rate, initial investment, revenue or cost projections, growth rate, or project life, while holding everything else constant. Present the results in a simple table and explain which variable the decision is most sensitive to.

Scenario Analysis

Build a base case, a best case, and a worst case, each internally consistent (don’t mix an optimistic revenue assumption with a pessimistic cost assumption unless you can justify why). Explain what the range across scenarios reveals about the investment’s risk that the base case alone does not show.

All illustrative numbers in your paper, whether from a real or hypothetical case, should be clearly labeled as such if they are not drawn from verifiable public data.

Risk and Uncertainty

Risk should run through your Analysis section, not sit in a single disconnected paragraph near the end. Depending on your topic, consider:

• Market risk: demand or pricing volatility affecting projected cash flows
• Operating risk: execution risk specific to the project itself
• Forecasting risk: the reliability of the cash flow estimates you’re working from
• Interest rate risk: how discount rate changes affect the decision
• Currency and political risk: relevant specifically to international projects
• Technology risk: adoption, integration, or obsolescence risk for tech-related investments
• ESG-related risk: where sustainability factors could plausibly affect cash flows, discount rates, or long-term viability

For each risk category relevant to your topic, explain specifically how it would affect your cash flow assumptions, your discount rate, or your scenario construction, tied directly back to your research question rather than discussed in the abstract.

Ethical and ESG Considerations

Don’t force ESG into a topic where it isn’t genuinely relevant. Incorporate it when your topic actually involves sustainability-linked investments, long-horizon environmental risk, or a decision where non-financial stakeholder impact plausibly changes the financial calculus. Where it applies, explain specifically how ethical or ESG factors could influence cash flow assumptions, discount rate selection, or the interpretation of results, rather than adding a generic paragraph about corporate responsibility disconnected from your actual analysis.

How to Structure the 8–10 Page Paper

These are recommended space allocations, not additional official requirements beyond what your assignment specifies.

What a Strong Introduction Contains

Work through these eight elements in order: context, the problem, the research gap, your research question, your objective, the scope of your analysis, a brief note on your methodology, and why the project matters (significance). A short illustrative example: “Capital budgeting decisions increasingly involve technology investments whose benefits ramp up over time rather than arriving as a constant annual figure [context/problem]… yet the capital budgeting literature has not fully integrated AI-informed forecasting with standard scenario analysis techniques [gap]… this paper asks whether integrating the two changes the estimated value of a technology investment decision [research question]…”

Methodology

Explain your research approach, your data or assumptions (and whether they’re illustrative or drawn from verifiable public sources), which capital budgeting techniques you’re applying, why you selected them, how you constructed any sensitivity or scenario analysis, and what limitations or assumptions apply. Methodology explains how you’re going to analyze; Analysis is where you actually do it and report what you found.

Analysis

This section carries the most weight in your grade, since Application of Techniques is 30% on its own. Move from data to calculation to result to interpretation to implication every time, not just data to result. Don’t write “NPV is $125,000” and stop. Explain what that number means for the investment decision, and how it changes under different assumptions.

Conclusion

Answer your research question directly. Don’t introduce new arguments here. Cover your main findings, what they mean for capital budgeting practice, honest limitations, and a genuine direction for future research, not a repeat of your introduction in different words.

10+ BUS 960 Research Project Mistakes That Can Weaken Your Paper

1. Choosing a topic that’s too broad. Why it matters: you can’t cover “capital budgeting” meaningfully in 8–10 pages. Fix: run every topic through the 5-Minute Topic Test before committing.
2. Writing a textbook explanation instead of conducting research. Why it matters: explaining what NPV is isn’t research. Fix: frame every section around your specific research question, not general theory.
3. Using weak or outdated sources. Why it matters: undermines Research and Integration (20% of your grade). Fix: prioritize sources from the last few years unless citing a seminal, foundational text.
4. Summarizing sources instead of synthesizing them. Why it matters: a list of summaries isn’t a literature review. Fix: use the literature review matrix and write from patterns across sources, not source by source.
5. Failing to identify a research gap. Why it matters: without a gap, there’s no reason for your project to exist. Fix: explicitly state what existing research hasn’t resolved before introducing your own question.
6. Applying NPV or IRR without explaining the assumptions. Why it matters: evaluators can’t assess technique quality without seeing your inputs. Fix: state every assumption behind every calculation.
7. Presenting calculations without interpretation. Why it matters: a number alone doesn’t demonstrate analytical depth. Fix: follow every calculation with what it means for the decision.
8. Ignoring uncertainty. Why it matters: real capital budgeting decisions are never single-point certainties. Fix: include sensitivity or scenario analysis, not just a base case.
9. Adding risk as an afterthought. Why it matters: a disconnected risk paragraph reads as filler. Fix: tie each risk category directly to your cash flow, discount rate, or scenario assumptions.
10. Making unsupported claims. Why it matters: damages credibility and Research and Integration. Fix: back every claim with either your own calculation or a cited source.
11. Using inconsistent numbers. Why it matters: a figure that changes between your Analysis and Conclusion signals a lack of care. Fix: double-check every number appears identically everywhere it’s referenced.
12. Having references that don’t appear in the paper. Why it matters: a mismatched reference list is an easy, avoidable error. Fix: cross-check every reference entry against an in-text citation before submitting.
13. Citing sources you didn’t actually review. Why it matters: an academic integrity risk, not just a quality issue. Fix: only cite what you’ve actually read closely enough to summarize accurately.
14. Writing a conclusion that simply repeats the introduction. Why it matters: wastes space that should synthesize findings. Fix: the conclusion should answer the question the introduction posed, using the findings from your analysis.
15. Preparing the presentation as an afterthought. Why it matters: Presentation Quality is 20% of your grade on its own. Fix: budget real time for it; see the Presentation Guide below.

Busy Student Workflow: A Six-Week Plan

If You’re Already Behind

If you’re starting later than planned, don’t try to do everything at once. Compress in this order without cutting corners on originality: finalize a narrow, defensible topic today (not the “ideal” one, a workable one); build your literature review matrix from 5–6 solid sources rather than 10–12; run your core calculations before writing any surrounding prose, since the analysis is worth the most and takes the longest to redo if something is wrong; write the paper in a single focused pass rather than many short sessions; and budget a fixed, non-negotiable block for the presentation, since it’s graded independently and can’t be rushed in the last hour.

What you should not do is fabricate sources, invent data and present it as real, or submit AI-generated content without reviewing, understanding, and taking ownership of every claim in it. A compressed timeline is a scheduling problem; academic integrity is not something to compress.

Final Paper Checklist

Run through this in 10–15 minutes before you submit.

Research Question

• Names a specific technique, context, and outcome
• Answerable within the scope of an 8–10 page paper

Literature Review

• 2–3 pages, synthesized rather than summarized source by source
• Clearly identifies a specific research gap
• Connects the gap directly to your research question

Methodology

• States your analytical approach and data/assumptions
• Explains why you selected your specific technique(s)
• Distinguishes illustrative data from verifiable public data

Capital Budgeting Calculations

• Every calculation shows its inputs, not just the final number
• Every number is double-checked for accuracy
• Numbers are consistent everywhere they’re referenced

Risk Analysis

• Risk is integrated into the analysis, not a standalone paragraph
• Each risk category ties to a specific assumption in your model

Sensitivity/Scenario Analysis

• At least one form of sensitivity or scenario analysis is included
• Results are interpreted, not just tabulated

Academic Writing

• Every section connects back to the research question
• Conclusion introduces no new arguments

References

• Every in-text citation has a matching reference entry
• Every reference entry is cited somewhere in the text
• APA 7 formatting is consistent throughout

Formatting

• 8–10 pages excluding references and appendices
• Consistent headings matching the required structure

Presentation

• 10–12 minutes, timed and checked
• Slides support the spoken content rather than duplicating it

Final Submission

• Both paper and video presentation are ready
• Submitted by the course’s final deadline

Presentation Guide

Your presentation is worth 20% of your grade on its own, and it should summarize your paper, not repeat it word for word.

Recommended structure:

1. Title and research problem
2. Background
3. Research question
4. Literature findings
5. Methodology
6. Capital budgeting model
7. Key calculations
8. Risk/scenario analysis
9. Findings
10. Implications
11. Conclusion

What belongs on the slide versus what you say out loud: slides should carry headlines, key numbers, and visuals, charts, tables, and short labels, not full paragraphs. If a sentence is long enough to read aloud in one breath, it belongs in your spoken narration, not on the slide itself. A slide with a dense paragraph competes with you for the audience’s attention instead of supporting what you’re saying.

Suggested timing (10–12 minutes total):

How the Paper Will Be Evaluated

This table uses only the evaluation criteria stated in your assignment instructions.

To maximize alignment with these stated evaluation criteria, review your paper against this table specifically, not just against the checklist above, before you submit. This process is a quality-control framework, not a guarantee of a particular score.

Quick-Start Research Template

Fill in each line before you write a single paragraph of your paper. This alone can take you from a blank document to a workable research plan in under an hour.

Research Topic: ___________________________

Problem: ___________________________

Research Question: ___________________________

Research Objective: ___________________________

Research Gap: ___________________________

Capital Budgeting Technique(s): ___________________________

Key Variables: ___________________________

Risk Factors: ___________________________

Scenario/Sensitivity Variables: ___________________________

Expected Contribution: ___________________________

Primary Sources: ___________________________

Complete Model Research Project

Seeing a finished example makes every section above easier to apply to your own topic. Gradevia has built a full model research project, an APA 7 Word paper and a matching PowerPoint presentation, demonstrating this entire structure on the topic “Improving Capital Budgeting Decisions Under Uncertainty: Integrating AI-Driven Cash Flow Forecasting with Scenario Analysis in Technology Investment Appraisal.”

This is a model example for learning and structural guidance only. It is not an official BUS 960 answer, and it should not be submitted unchanged. It uses a fictitious company (Meridian Logistics Solutions) and entirely illustrative financial data, built specifically to show how a complete, well-structured project reads, from research question through literature review, methodology, a full NPV/IRR/payback comparison, sensitivity analysis, scenario analysis, and conclusion, with five real, verifiable, peer-reviewed sources cited throughout.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the BUS 960 research project? It’s a two-part deliverable, an original 8–10 page research paper on a specific capital budgeting topic, plus a 10–12 minute recorded presentation summarizing your findings, completed over a six-week course window.

How long should the BUS 960 paper be? 8–10 pages, excluding references and appendices, per your assignment instructions.

What topics can I choose for BUS 960? Any topic directly related to capital budgeting that you can narrow to a specific research question. Your assignment suggests AI and digital technology, sustainability/ESG, modifications to NPV/IRR, and risk in international projects as possible directions, but these are suggested tracks, not the only options.

What capital budgeting techniques can I use? NPV, IRR, payback period, discounted payback, profitability index, sensitivity analysis, and scenario analysis are all directly supported by your assignment. Monte Carlo simulation and real options are explicitly mentioned as options if applicable to your chosen problem.

Does the BUS 960 project require NPV? Your assignment lists NPV among the core techniques to apply, but the specific combination of techniques should fit your research question rather than being forced.

Can I use sensitivity analysis? Yes, it’s explicitly named in your assignment as a way to evaluate the robustness of your investment decision under different conditions.

How do I write the BUS 960 literature review? Target 2–3 pages, synthesize rather than summarize source by source, and explicitly connect what you find to a specific research gap your own project addresses.

How many sources should I use? Your assignment doesn’t specify an exact number. As a practical recommendation, 6–10 well-chosen, closely read sources typically support a 2–3 page synthesized literature review more effectively than a longer list of thinly used ones.

What should the BUS 960 presentation include? A structure covering your research problem, background, research question, literature findings, methodology, your capital budgeting model, key calculations, risk/scenario analysis, findings, implications, and conclusion, timed to 10–12 minutes.

What are common BUS 960 research project mistakes? Choosing an overly broad topic, summarizing rather than synthesizing sources, presenting calculations without interpreting them, and treating the presentation as an afterthought are among the most common; see the full list above.

How do I choose a research question? Start from a topic, narrow it to a specific problem, then state it as a question naming a specific technique, context, and measurable outcome, using the Topic → Problem → Research Question → Method → Findings framework above.

How can I complete BUS 960 if I work full time? Follow the six-week workflow above, protect your Analysis-section time specifically since it carries the most grading weight, and use the compressed workflow if you’re starting later than planned, without cutting corners on original research.

References

Brealey, R. A., Myers, S. C., Allen, F., & Edmans, A. (2023). Principles of corporate finance (14th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

Gorupec, N., Brehmer, N., Tiberius, V., & Kraus, S. (2022). Tackling uncertain future scenarios with real options: A review and research framework. Irish Journal of Management, 41(1), 69–88. https://doi.org/10.2478/ijm-2022-0003

Jawad, N. A.-H. K., & Azeez, R. T. (2026). The impact of using artificial intelligence on investment decisions. Al-Ghary Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, 22(1), 834–861. https://doi.org/10.36325/ghjec.v22i1.22068

Kureljusic, M., & Metz, J. (2023). The applicability of machine learning algorithms in accounts receivables management. Journal of Applied Accounting Research, 24(2), 291–316. https://doi.org/10.1108/JAAR-05-2022-0116

Mota, J., & Moreira, A. C. (2023). Capital budgeting practices: A survey of two industries. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 16(3), 191. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm16030191

Özcan, İ. Ç. (2024). The use of Monte Carlo simulation in capital budgeting: An implementation on an airport privatization. Journal of Finance Letters, 39(121), 71–87. https://doi.org/10.33203/mfy.1280296

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This guide is written for academic coaching and assignment support purposes. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by your institution. Course requirements referenced above are drawn from the BUS 960 assignment instructions as provided; recommendations beyond those explicit requirements are labeled as such throughout and may not reflect every institution’s specific expectations. Verify current assignment details in your own course materials before finalizing your project.