A department or department that oversees the financial activities of an organization.  Corporate finance is primarily concerned with maximizing shareholder value through the implementation of long-term and short-term financial plans and various strategies.  Everything from capital investment decisions to investment banking comes under corporate finance.  Corporation finance is the division of finance into how corporations deal with funding sources, capital structures, and investment decisions.

  In particular, there are four elements in corporate finance that everyone should keep in mind when performing any type of analysis.  These four components are operating flow, investment capital, capital expenditure and return on invested capital.