Open Access

Michael Stefan Hertel

• The main objective of this doctoral thesis is to contribute to the fields of Finance and Information Management by focusing on an integrated risk and return management for investment projects in the Digital Economy. After introducing the transformation toward digitized value networks, an integrated risk and return management cycle that meets the requirements of value based management is presented, and challenges regarding its application in the valuation of investment projects are discussed. More precisely, these challenges concern specific aspects of identification, quantification, and reporting of risk and return, which are addressed in the research papers of this doctoral thesis. Regarding identification, the research papers analyze and classify the multitude of operational risks in digitized manufacturing. At this, the research papers conclude that the identification of threats, affected protection goals, and possible cascading effects in digitized value networks requires uniformThe main objective of this doctoral thesis is to contribute to the fields of Finance and Information Management by focusing on an integrated risk and return management for investment projects in the Digital Economy. After introducing the transformation toward digitized value networks, an integrated risk and return management cycle that meets the requirements of value based management is presented, and challenges regarding its application in the valuation of investment projects are discussed. More precisely, these challenges concern specific aspects of identification, quantification, and reporting of risk and return, which are addressed in the research papers of this doctoral thesis. Regarding identification, the research papers analyze and classify the multitude of operational risks in digitized manufacturing. At this, the research papers conclude that the identification of threats, affected protection goals, and possible cascading effects in digitized value networks requires uniform understanding and comprehensive collaboration between companies and disciplines. Regarding quantification, the research papers focus on applying the principles of value-based management to investment projects in energy efficient IT in order to contribute to project planning and decision making. Both research papers disclose decision errors when disregarding the effects of fluctuating energy prices in the investment valuation. Regarding reporting, the research paper focuses on reporting standards for closed-ended alternative investment funds (closed-ended AIFs) that enable transparency and comparability for private investors. The advantages of the proposed valuation system are demonstrated by using a data sample of real closed-ended AIFs and by comparing the valuation system to the existing information provision. This discloses an existing lack of transparency regarding the justification of forecasts. The doctoral thesis concludes with a summary and an outlook on future research.…