Final answer:
The Payback Period is the criterion that identifies when a project's cumulative costs and benefits are equal, focusing specifically on the time aspect for cost-benefit equilibrium.
Step-by-step explanation:
The business decision criterion that determines when the cumulative costs for a project are equal to the cumulative benefits for a project is the Payback Period. The Payback Period is the time it takes for the initial investment in a project to be recouped from the net cash inflows produced by the investment. It is a simple calculation that does not take into account the time value of money, unlike other methods such as Net Present Value (NPV), which discounts future cash flows to present value terms using a discount rate. While the Return on Investment (ROI) measures the efficiency of an investment and the Weighted Scoring Model is used to prioritize different projects, the Payback Period specifically looks at the time horizon for the cost-benefit equilibrium.