Periodo de recuperación y su uso en decisiones de inversión

Despite the growing adoption of advanced techniques for investment decision-making, the payback period remains a widely used criterion, even though the specialized literature discourages its application due to its limitations. The objective of this study was to understand the reasons why companies in Colombia continue to employ the payback period in their investment decisions. To this end, a two-stage analysis was conducted: first, a survey was administered to identify whether companies used the payback period as a decision criterion; second, in-depth interviews were carried out to explore the underlying reasons for its use. The results reveal four main findings. First, the payback period is used primarily as a management tool to monitor cash flow rather than as a decisive criterion. Second, investment decisions are typically based on more sophisticated financial indicators, such as net present value, internal rate of return, return on investment, and weighted average cost of capital. Third, the payback period is often employed as a tiebreaker when other techniques yield similar results. Fourth, non-financial factors, such as strategic considerations or interfirm relationships, also influence the decision-making process. The study concludes that the payback period plays a limited role in investment decision-making. Its widespread use appears to be more closely associated with tradition and custom than with its effectiveness as an analytical tool. This finding challenges the assumptions of previous studies that ascribe high relevance to the payback period and highlights the need for qualitative approaches to better understand complex organizational phenomena.