Analysis Of Influence Factors On Cost Stickiness Of China’s High-Tech Enterprises

The traditional cost analysis assumes a linear relationship between cost and volume of business, which deviates from the true situation of enterprise cost, and has great limitations on cost planning, control and decision-making. However, modern research has found that cost and volume of business do not present a kind of strict linear relationship, but are asymmetry, namely the existence of "cost stickiness". It means that when volume of business increases or decreases by the same amount, amplitude of corresponding cost decrease is lower than that of cost increase.In recent decade, research field of "cost stickiness" has gradually attracted the attention from China’s scholars. Firstly, this paper defines cost stickiness and high-tech enterprises, and points out the main contents of this paper. Secondly, it combs the study situation on cost stickiness; introduces the characteristics of cost stickiness; puts forward two characteristics of cost, namely universality and progressive decrease, and analyzes the enterprise’s internal and external influence factors based on the agency theory, incomplete contract theory and transaction cost theory, etc. Thirdly, it put forward the hypothesis on the basis of above analysis; this paper conducts data gathering through taking the annual reports of 125high-tech enterprises of Shanghai A-Stock Market from 2008 to 2013 as the object, and uses econometric model to conduct empirical test for the existence of cost stickiness of China’s high-tech enterprises and the effect of influence factors on cost stickiness. Finally, this paper puts forward optimization of cost stickiness and other policy suggestions based on the economic conditions and practical situation of high-tech enterprise management in China.Such conclusion can be drawn from the empirical test:(1)high-tech enterprises are featured by cost thickness in their operation process;(2) the cost thickness of the high-tech enterprises will not necessarily decline with the increase of the span of accounting period, which is quite contrary to the previous assumption;(3) the development conditions of national economic environment are positively correlated to the cost thickness of high-tech enterprises;(4) high-tech enterprises cost thickness is positively correlated to capital intensity of the enterprises;(5) high-tech enterprises cost thickness is positively correlated to labor intensity of the enterprises.Therefore, cost thickness is quite common in high-tech enterprises. It is almost impossible to completely eliminate this phenomenon, unless the whole market is at an ideal status, so that any loss can be avoidable when the management of the high-tech enterprises adjusts resource allocation with the change of business volume. Basically, it can better utilize the economic resources of the high-tech enterprises and reduce their cost thickness by taking such measures as improving market environment, strengthening supervision over their operation and enhancing their internal management level.