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Understanding cost behavior is a fundamental element of cost accounting and the management of a firm. Deviating from the traditional assumption of symmetric cost behavior, numerous recent research studies show that costs are sticky, that is, they decrease less when sales fall than they increase when sales rise. Daniel Baumgarten comprehensively analyzes the cost stickiness phenomenon by discussing its development and all relevant findings presented in the research literature. Furthermore, he provides several suggestions for future research and discusses important implications of cost stickiness for fundamental analysis and analysts' forecasts by means of two comprehensive empirical analyses.
List of contents
The Cost Stickiness Phenomenon.- Cost Stickiness and the Information Content of the SG&A Ratio.- Cost Stickiness and Analysts' Implied Forecasts.- Concluding Remarks.
About the author
Dr. Daniel Baumgarten received his doctoral degree from the University of Cologne under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Carsten Homburg (Department of Business Administration and Management Accounting).
Summary
Understanding cost behavior is a fundamental element of cost accounting and the management of a firm. Deviating from the traditional assumption of symmetric cost behavior, numerous recent research studies show that costs are sticky, that is, they decrease less when sales fall than they increase when sales rise. Daniel Baumgarten comprehensively analyzes the cost stickiness phenomenon by discussing its development and all relevant findings presented in the research literature. Furthermore, he provides several suggestions for future research and discusses important implications of cost stickiness for fundamental analysis and analysts’ forecasts by means of two comprehensive empirical analyses.
