A Review and Synthesis of ‘Cost Stickiness’ Literature
A Review and Synthesis of ‘Cost Stickiness’ Literature
Mahfuja Malik Boston University
November 9, 2012
Abstract:
Traditional cost accounting holds the assumption that cost changes proportionately with activity. Anderson et al. (2003) show that cost increases more when activity rises than decreases less when activity falls by an equivalent amount, a behavior that they refer to as “cost stickiness”. By following Anderson et al. (2003) researchers investigate the determinants, consequences and different aspects of cost stickiness. However, some studies raise questions about the validity of the inference made by Anderson et al. (2003). Over the last few years many authors highlight some new aspects such as earnings forecasts error, agency problem and earnings management that relate to cost stickiness. The objective of this paper is to review and synthesize the growing body of research on cost stickiness. Lack of theoretical support, merely insights provided by the literature and some inconclusive findings suggest that there are ample research opportunities to improve the understanding in this area.
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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments.
KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community.
KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.
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