Assimetria dos custos em empresas brasileiras de capital aberto do setor de Química

Abstract

The understanding cost behavior is important for management decisions and organizational competitiveness. The Traditional Approach to Cost Behavior establishes costs as fixed or variable, with variable costs behaving symmetrically, while the Sticky Costs Theory establishes that costs behave asymmetrically, being called sticky costs. The objective of this research is to verify the impact of the determining factors in the asymmetry of sticky costs in Brazilian public companies in the chemical sector. The research is descriptive and quantitative, using descriptive statistics and the panel data regression model as a technique, with the sample comprising 12 publicly traded Brazilian chemical companies active in the Securities and Exchange Commission, from 1995 to 2018 and contained in the Economatica database. The results show that, on average, 80% of Net Sales Revenue (NSR) is intended to cover the Cost of Goods Sold (CPS), 46% for Raw Material (RM), 12% for Selling Expenses and Administrative (SEA) and 94% for the Total Costs (TC) of the sector. Regarding the analysis of the hypotheses, the asymmetry of costs (H1) is not refuted for the RM and SEA costs of the chemical sector and for the CPS and TC costs of the segment of medicines and other products, being the asymmetric sticky costs. Once the asymmetry of the sticky costs is proven, we proceed to assess the individual impact of the determining factors in this asymmetry. In this study, the Cost Structure (H2), Company Size (H3), Asset Intensity (H4) and Labor Intensity (H5), Magnitude of Variations (H7), Delay in Cost Adjustments (H8), Chemical Industry GDP Growth (H9) and the Sectorial Trade Deficit (H10), did not impact the asymmetry of sticky costs in the chemical sector. The Manager's Deliberate Decision (H6) is not refuted and negatively affects the asymmetry of sticky costs in companies in the chemical sector, considering a period of decline of 3 consecutive years of NSR. In relation to the CPS and TC of the medication and other products segment, the hypotheses about the determining factors of sticky cost asymmetry were analyzed, but all were refuted. Finally, there is the joint analysis (H11) of the determining factors that, evaluated in the chemistry sector, was not refuted just for the costs with SEA. For the segment of medicines and other products, H11 was not refuted for both expenses. It is concluded, with the findings of the study, that the determining factors that impact on the asymmetry of the sticky costs in the Brazilian reality do not impact on the asymmetry of the sticky costs of the chemical sector, with the exception of the pessimism of the managers. The managers of the chemical sector remain pessimistic with the fall in NSR, maintaining resources for 3 years, only after this period, they eliminate resources from the current period and from previous periods. In addition, the asymmetry of the sticky costs of the industry segments does not influence the asymmetry of the sticky costs of the chemical sector.