Understanding cost behavior is a fundamental element of cost accounting
and the management of a firm. Deviating from the traditional assumption
of symmetric cost behavior, numerous recent research studies show that
costs are sticky, that is, they decrease less when sales fall than they
increase when sales rise. Daniel Baumgarten comprehensively analyzes the
cost stickiness phenomenon by discussing its development and all
relevant findings presented in the research literature. Furthermore, he
provides several suggestions for future research and discusses important
implications of cost stickiness for fundamental analysis and analysts'
forecasts by means of two comprehensive empirical analyses.