기업의 경영조건이 비대칭적 원가행태에 미치는 영향: 원가관리와 이익조정의 역할

The purpose of this study is to empirically analyze the effect of corporate business conditions on the managers’ decision-making regarding the costs by utilizing the asymmetric cost behavior of selling, general, and administrative expenses(SGA). According to the empirical findings of this study, the corporate financial condition (such as cash flow, current ratio, and debt ratio) and factors regarding the corporate growth(such as growth potential, research & development intensity, and property, plant, and equipment intensity) influence the asymmetric cost behavior of SGA. The performance index such as return on assets(ROA) also influences the asymmetric cost behavior of SGA through managers’ earnings management. The higher the proportion of cash flow from operation(CFO) in earnings, the more the SGA increases with sales increase than it decreases in response to the equivalent sales decrease, making the cost behavior of SGA downward sticky. The role of CFO in earnings can be regarded as the financial enabler to maintain the underutilized resources in the periods of sales decline. The current ratio and corporate growth potential proxied by the MV/BV(market value of equity/book value of equity) ratio also play the similar role as the CFO/ earnings ratio does as far as the cost behavior of SGA concerned. However, the higher the debt ratio which represents financial constraints or low growth opportunities, the SGA decreases with sales decrease more than it increases in response to the equivalent sales increase, making the cost behavior of SGA upward sticky. The higher intensities of R&D and PPE make corporate managers reduce SGA more actively to facilitate the internal financing for the R&D and PPE investments. The empirical findings of this study also show that PPE investment has priority over R&D investment when they compete each other for the limited resources. These findings imply that the priorities of investments or projects also influence the cost behavior of SGA. The most influential variables impacting the asymmetric cost behavior of SGA are the CFO/earnings ratio, PPE intensity, and debt ratio, which also can be considered as the most important factors for SGA(cost) related decisions. The higher the current ROA, the more the current SGA decreases with current sales decrease than it increases in response to the equivalent current sales increase, making the cost behavior of SGA upward sticky. However, the higher the previous periods’ (years t-1 and t-2) ROAs, the more the current SGA increases with current sales increase than it decreases in response to the equivalent current sales decrease, making the cost behavior of SGA downward sticky. These cost behaviors suggest that managers consider the previous periods’ ROAs as well as current ROA in making decisions on the costs in order to make the earnings smoothing in conjunction with earnings management. This study also shows that managers would take into account at least three accounting periods(years t, t-1, and t-2) when they are considering the earnings smoothing. The results of this study provide empirical evidences that various corporate business conditions which have not been fully explored in the previous studies have an effect on the asymmetric cost behavior.