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

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 database Business Source Premier.

The final sample of 60 papers is examined following 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 characteristics and managers who take decisions about the level of costs. [Publisher's text].