IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/fan/macoma/vhtml10.3280-maco2020-001-s1007.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sticky costs: le determinanti e le sfide per manager e accademici

Author

Listed:
  • Cristiana Cattaneo
  • Gaia Bassani

Abstract

Sticky costs challenge the traditional approach to cost behavior. Costs are sticky if they decrease less when sales fall than they increase when sales rise by an equiva-lent amount. This occurs because managers deliberately adjust the resources committed to activities changing business volumes. This paper investigates the determinants of stickiness in the time-space contexts. Authors conduct a literature review analyzing 482 articles selected from the data-base Business Source Premier. The final sample of 60 papers is examined follow-ing a multitude of criteria: time of publication, journal, methodological approach, objectives, main results and factors determining sticky costs. Results show sticky costs as a global phenomenon that crosses countries and increases during macro-economic crisis. Costs could be classified as sticky, anti-sticky or super sticky and this asymmetric behavior depends on: national and industry context, firm charac-teristics and managers who take decisions about the level of costs.

Suggested Citation

  • Cristiana Cattaneo & Gaia Bassani, 2020. "Sticky costs: le determinanti e le sfide per manager e accademici," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2020(Suppl. 1), pages 103-126.
  • Handle: RePEc:fan:macoma:v:html10.3280/maco2020-001-s1007
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=65972&Tipo=ArticoloPDF
    Download Restriction: Single articles can be downloaded buying download credits, for info: https://www.francoangeli.it/DownloadCredit
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Guenther & Anja Riehl & Richard Rößler, 2014. "Cost stickiness: state of the art of research and implications," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 301-318, February.
    2. Chung, Chune Young & Hur, Seok-Kyun & Liu, Chang, 2019. "Institutional investors and cost stickiness: Theory and evidence," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 336-350.
    3. Yiru Yang, 2019. "Do Accruals Earnings Management Constraints and Intellectual Capital Efficiency Trigger Asymmetric Cost Behaviour? Evidence from Australia," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 29(1), pages 177-192, March.
    4. Itay Kama & Dan Weiss, 2013. "Do Earnings Targets and Managerial Incentives Affect Sticky Costs?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1), pages 201-224, March.
    5. Mark C. Anderson & Rajiv D. Banker & Surya N. Janakiraman, 2003. "Are Selling, General, and Administrative Costs “Sticky”?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(1), pages 47-63, March.
    6. Luciano Marchi & Sara Trucco, 2017. "La comunicazione al mercato delle performance economico-finanziarie: il ruolo del controllo di gestione," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2017(3), pages 55-78.
    7. Noreen, Eric & Noreen, Eric & Soderstrom, Naomi, 1994. "Are overhead costs strictly proportional to activity? : Evidence from hospital departments," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1-2), pages 255-278, January.
    8. Clara Xiaoling Chen & Hai Lu & Theodore Sougiannis, 2012. "The Agency Problem, Corporate Governance, and the Asymmetrical Behavior of Selling, General, and Administrative Costs," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(1), pages 252-282, March.
    9. Awad Elsayed Awad Ibrahim, 2015. "Economic growth and cost stickiness: evidence from Egypt," Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 13(1), pages 119-140, July.
    10. Banker, Rajiv D. & Basu, Sudipta & Byzalov, Dmitri & Chen, Janice Y.S., 2016. "The confounding effect of cost stickiness on conservatism estimates," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 203-220.
    11. Anderson, Mark & Asdemir, Ozer & Tripathy, Arindam, 2013. "Use of precedent and antecedent information in strategic cost management," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(5), pages 643-650.
    12. Maria Serena Chiucchi, 2014. "Editoriale. Il gap tra teoria e prassi nel Management Accounting: il contributo della field-based research," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(3), pages 5-9.
    13. Banker, Rajiv D. & Byzalov, Dmitri & Chen, Lei (Tony), 2013. "Employment protection legislation, adjustment costs and cross-country differences in cost behavior," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 111-127.
    14. Marcela Porporato & Eliana Werbin, 2012. "Evidence of sticky costs in banks of Argentina, Brazil and Canada," International Journal of Financial Services Management, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(4), pages 303-320.
    15. Fernando Zanella & Peter Oyelere & Shahadut Hossain, 2015. "Are costs really sticky? Evidence from publicly listed companies in the UAE," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(60), pages 6519-6528, December.
    16. Wu-Lung Li & Kenneth Zheng, 2017. "Product market competition and cost stickiness," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 283-313, August.
    17. Lino Cinquini & Rosa Alba Miraglia & Riccardo Giannetti, 2016. "Editoriale. Strumenti di gestione dei costi e misure di performance negli attuali contesti competitivi," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2016(2), pages 5-14.
    18. Jian Xu & Jae Woo Sim, 2017. "Are costs really sticky and biased? Evidence from manufacturing listed companies in China," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(55), pages 5601-5613, November.
    19. Ronny Prabowo & Reggy Hooghiemstra & Paula Van Veen-Dirks, 2018. "State Ownership, Socio-political Factors, and Labor Cost Stickiness," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 771-796, August.
    20. Nicola Dalla Via & Paolo Perego & Steven Cahan, 2014. "Sticky cost behaviour: evidence from small and medium sized companies," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 54(3), pages 753-778, September.
    21. Kitching, Karen & Mashruwala, Raj & Pevzner, Mikhail, 2016. "Culture and Cost Stickiness: A Cross-country Study," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 402-417.
    22. Sandra Cohen & Sotirios Karatzimas & Vassilios-Christos Naoum, 2017. "The sticky cost phenomenon at the local government level: empirical evidence from Greece," Journal of Applied Accounting Research, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 18(4), pages 445-463, November.
    23. Josep Mª Argilés-Bosch & Josep García-Blandón & Diego Ravenda & Maika M. Valencia-Silva & Antonio D. Somoza, 2017. "The influence of the trade-off between profitability and future increases in sales on cost stickiness," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 44(1 Year 20), pages 81-104, June.
    24. Lino Cinquini & Paolo Collini & Alessandro Marelli & Andrea Tenucci, 2011. "I cambiamenti del costing nelle aziende manifatturiere italiane: risultati di una ricerca comparativa," MANAGEMENT CONTROL, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2011(1), pages 11-40.
    25. Ramji Balakrishnan & Thomas S. Gruca, 2008. "Cost Stickiness and Core Competency: A Note," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(4), pages 993-1006, December.
    26. Martin Bugeja & Meiting Lu & Yaowen Shan, 2015. "Cost Stickiness in Australia: Characteristics and Determinants," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 25(3), pages 248-261, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ibrahim, Awad Elsayed Awad & Ali, Hesham & Aboelkheir, Heba, 2022. "Cost stickiness: A systematic literature review of 27 years of research and a future research agenda," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    2. Komang Ayu Krisnadewi & Noorlailie Soewarno, 2021. "Optimism and profit-based incentives in cost stickiness: an experimental study," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 7-31, March.
    3. Tingyong Zhong & Fangcheng Sun & Haiyan Zhou & Jeoung Yul Lee, 2020. "Business Strategy, State-Owned Equity and Cost Stickiness: Evidence from Chinese Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-21, March.
    4. Hakan Özkaya, 2021. "Sticky cost behavior: evidence from small and medium sized enterprises in Turkey," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(2), pages 349-369, June.
    5. Mabel D. Costa & Ahsan Habib, 2021. "Trade credit and cost stickiness," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(1), pages 1139-1179, March.
    6. Mohammad Mahdi Rounaghi & Hajer Jarrar & Leo-Paul Dana, 2021. "Implementation of strategic cost management in manufacturing companies: overcoming costs stickiness and increasing corporate sustainability," Future Business Journal, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-8, December.
    7. Mabel D. Costa & Ahsan Habib & Md. Borhan Uddin Bhuiyan, 2021. "Financial constraints and asymmetric cost behavior," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 33-83, March.
    8. Michael E Bradbury & Tom Scott, 2018. "Do managers forecast asymmetric cost behaviour?," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 43(4), pages 538-554, November.
    9. Lijun Ma & Xin Wang & Che Zhang, 2021. "Does Religion Shape Corporate Cost Behavior?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(4), pages 835-855, May.
    10. Christian Riegler & Katrin Weiskirchner-Merten, 2021. "Research note: an analytical perspective on market decisions and asymmetric cost behavior," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 991-1005, May.
    11. Joanna Golden & Kenneth Zheng, 2022. "Cost management and corporate payout decisions," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 911-938, April.
    12. Wulung Li & Ramachandran Natarajan & Yan Zhao & Kenneth Zheng, 2021. "The effect of management control mechanisms through risk-taking incentives on asymmetric cost behavior," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 56(1), pages 219-243, January.
    13. Shohei Nagasawa, 2018. "Asymmetric cost behavior in local public enterprises: exploring the public interest and striving for efficiency," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 225-273, December.
    14. Thomas R. Loy & Sven Hartlieb, 2018. "Have estimates of cost stickiness changed across listing cohorts?," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 161-181, August.
    15. Sven Hartlieb & Thomas R. Loy, 2022. "The impact of cost stickiness on financial reporting: evidence from income smoothing," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(3), pages 3913-3950, September.
    16. Josep Mª. Argilés‐Bosch & Josep Garcia‐Blandón & Diego Ravenda, 2023. "Empirical analysis of the relationship between labour cost stickiness and labour reforms in Spain," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(S1), pages 1187-1221, April.
    17. Wei Huang & Jaehyeon Kim, 2020. "Linguistically Induced Time Perception and Asymmetric Cost Behavior," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 60(5), pages 755-785, October.
    18. Dae-Hyun Kwon, 2019. "Demand Uncertainty, Cost Behavior, and the Asian Financial Crisis: Evidence from Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-12, April.
    19. Fangjun Wang & Lizhu Ma & Baojun Gao & Yang S Liu, 2024. "Does high-speed railway affect the cost behavior of tourism firms? Evidence from China," Tourism Economics, , vol. 30(1), pages 212-235, February.
    20. Zhaoyang Gu & Song Tang & Donghui Wu, 2020. "The Political Economy of Labor Employment Decisions: Evidence from China," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(10), pages 4703-4725, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fan:macoma:v:html10.3280/maco2020-001-s1007. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Stefania Rosato (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/sommario.aspx?IDRivista=166 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.