재무적 여력이 판매관리비의 하방경직성에 미치는 영향 (The Effect of Financial Slack on SG&A Cost Behavior)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국회계학회
· 수록지 정보 : 회계학연구 / 39권 / 3호 / 291 ~ 331페이지
· 저자명 : 임상균, 박진하, 황인이

초록

본 연구에서는 기업의 재무적 여력(financial slack)이 판매관리비 행태에 미치는 영향을 분석하였다. 재무적 여력은 고정비용으로 인한 재무적 위험을 낮추어 매출감소시에도 수익성 높은 기업자원을 유보하는 경향을 강화할 것이므로 이에 따라 판매관리비의 하방경직성이 강화될 것이다. 또한, 영업현금흐름의 변동성이 큰 기업은 투자재원의 제약으로 인해 자원을 확대하기 어려우므로, 매출감소시의 기업자원 축소는 성장기회를 놓치게 될 가능성을 높인다. 그러므로 영업현금흐름의 변동성이 높으면 판매관리비의 하방경직성은 강화될 것이다. 이상의 추론을 검증하여 다음과 같은 결과를 발견하였다. 첫째, 자산의 수익성이 높은 기업군에서 기초의 현금보유수준이 증가함에 따라 판매관리비의 하방경직성이 강화되었다. 둘째, 영업현금흐름의 변동성이 증가함에 따라 판매관리비의 하방경직성(cost stickiness)이 강화되었으며, 기초의 내부유보현금이 많은 기업군에서 이러한 관계는 더욱 현저하게 나타났다.
본 연구의 추가분석에서는 매출감소시에 기업자원을 처분하는 경향과 기업의 현금성자산 유보경향의 상관관계를 살펴보았다. 분석결과는 원가의 하방탄력성과 내부유보현금의 변화 사이에 양(+)의 상관관계가 있음을 밝혔는데, 자원을 처분하는 기업에서는 미래의 투자를 위해 현금성 자산을 유보하는 경향이 있음을 보여준다. 이러한 경향은 영업현금흐름 뿐만 아니라 재무현금흐름에서도 나타났으며, 기초의 내부유보현금이 적거나 자산의 수익률이 낮은 경우에 더욱 뚜렷하였다.
그간의 원가행태 연구에서는 재무적 의사결정과 기업자원의 관리의 상호연관성이 자세히 연구되지 않았다. 본 연구는 재무적 측면과 기업의 원가행태가 상호연관성을 보임으로써 회계문헌상에 공헌점을 가진다.

영어초록

This study examines the relationship between financial slack (cash holdings in order to make the planned investments) and selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) cost behavior. Since Anderson et al. (2003), many studies have found SG&A costs are sticky and investigated possible drivers of the asymmetric SG&A cost behavior. Those studies report that the adjustment cost of resources, managers’ expectations of future sales, prior activity changes, and managerial incentives are major drivers of the asymmetric behavior in SG&A costs (Anderson et al. 2003; Banker et al. 2011). In addition, Banker et al. (2013a and 2013b) discuss the importance of managing slack resources from the viewpoint of each sticky cost driver. We extend the literature and examine financial slack as another source of asymmetric behavior in SG&A costs.
Firms need capital to acquire and maintain corporate resources for operating activities. Thus, the financial slack of a firm could affect the firm’s decisions on operating resource management and hence its SG&A costs. When firms have a sufficiently large amount of cash holdings, they are less constrained in investment decisions and more capable of maintaining operating resources even in sales-decrease periods. Provided with higher resource productivity in particular, firms disposing of such productive resources in proportion to sales decrease may suffer more from opportunity costs of missing sales as demand rebounds in the next periods. Hence, in firms with large cash holdings, i.e., financial slack, managers are likely to maintain and utilize slack resources and SG&A costs more effectively.
In addition to the size of cash holdings, the volatility of cash flow from operations (CFO) could be another important financial characteristics that affect cost adjustment decisions. Cash flow created from operating activities is the most important source of capital for operating expenditures and investments (Tirole 2006; Mayer 1988). As the volatility of operating cash flow increases, there is a greater chance that a firm cannot timely increase its corporate resources when market demand increases. In other words, firms with high volatility in operating cash flow should be cautious in downward resource adjustment in response to sales decrease because they may not catch up on potential growth opportunities in the future. Based on Banker et al.’s (2012) prediction that allowing more slack resources is optimal when market environment is more uncertain, we examine whether or not firms with large volatility in operating cash flow maintain excess resources in SG&A activities.
This study tests these conjectures using firms listed on the Korean Stock Exchange (KSE) or on the Korea Securities Dealers Automated Quotation (KOSDAQ). Our final sample consists of 10,747 firm-year observations from 2000 to 2012. We find that SG&A costs become stickier as the beginning balance of cash holdings increases. This result implies that financial slack helps to maintain excess resources in the adverse demand condition. Next, SG&A costs become stickier as the volatility of CFO increases. The effect of the volatility of CFO is robust after controlling the volatility of revenues in the regression model. Interestingly, the result shows that the effect of the volatility of revenues is subsumed by the effect of the volatility of CFO. We also find that the positive association between the volatility of CFO and cost stickiness is salient when beginning cash holdings are large, which suggests that financial slack is helpful to maintain excess resources in periods of sales decrease.
In additional tests, we examine how operating resource adjustment and financial slack management are associated by considering the productivity of slack resources. We first find that the change of cash holdings is positively related to the anti- stickiness of SG&A costs. When the change of cash holdings is divided into three parts (cash flows from operating, financing, and investing activities), both CFO and cash flow from financing activities (CFF) are positively related to the anti- stickiness of SG&A costs. More importantly, we find that this relation is stronger for firms with low cash holdings or low return on assets. The results from our additional tests suggest that firms with low profitability or low financial slack reduce SG&A costs when sales decrease so that they can redirect the cost savings to build more financial slacks.
This study has several contributions to the accounting and finance literature. First, extant studies on cost behavior have not studied the relation between financial characteristics and cost behavior. The literature on corporate finance provides evidence that financing activities can make critical impacts on operating decisions. This study fills the void in the accounting literature by documenting the effect of financial slack on cost behavior. Second, studies on financial slack, i.e. cash holdings, generally focus on the impact of cash holdings on future investments (e.g. Almeida et al. 2004; Frésard 2010; Faleye 2004; Campello et al. 2010). This research, in contrast, examines the role of financial slack on resource management decisions and finds the importance of cash holdings for maintaining current resources when sales decrease. Finally, this study shows that managers coordinate financial slack and operating resource slack managements as a whole in organization. We believe these points can help build a bridge among corporate finance and managerial accounting studies.

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