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 equivalent 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, objec-tives, 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 asym-metric behavior depends on: national and industry context, firm characteristics and managers who take decisions about the level of costs.