In my view, the question of whether or not articles are required is very complicated. It is necessary to know the context, which is often not contained in a sentence standing alone. You often need to know what was said before the sentence you're asking about. I will give one example:
"Finally pecking order and trade-off theories were..." This sentence is correct, if you are writing about the concept of pecking orders and trade-off theories, but not any specific pecking order or trade-off theory.
"Finally the pecking order and the trade-offs were..." This sentence is also correct, if you are writing about a specific pecking order and specific trade-offs which were already identified or otherwise known to the reader.
The same can be said about your two other pairs of sentences. Everything depends on whether the writer and reader have specific, identified "future funding needs", "long-term plans" and "short-term goals" in mind, or not.