Will Joint Management of the Couple Change Enterprises’ Cost Stickiness？Empirical Evidence from A-share Listed Family Business in China

Abstract

Cost stickiness is an important concept in the field of management accounting, and it is also an interesting feature of cost asymmetry which is different from the traditional cost management model. The motivation behind the cost stickiness of business has always been the focus of academic study. The research focus of this paper is to explore the influencing factors and internal mechanism of the cost stickiness of enterprises from the perspective of the characteristics of the power structure of actual controllers. Different from the general organizational form, the family business based on marriage as the basis of the contract is unique in the allocation of organizational power. First, husband and wife, as the connection of marriage and the core of family business, have an impact on the development of enterprises. But, as independent individuals, they have individual heterogeneity to the firm. The influence of the above characteristics on the cost stickiness behavior under the property right structure-ownership allocation and management right allocation-is more profound.Using China’s A-share listed family companies from 2007 to 2018 as research samples to test, the results show that: （1）Spousal co-governance has a significant impact on the cost stickiness of enterprises: the ownership allocation based on the joint shareholding of husband and wife and the management right allocation based on the joint management of husband and wife have a significant impact on cost stickiness; （2）Equity restriction plays a significant regulating role between marital co-governance and cost stickiness; （3）Entrepreneurial ability of the couple plays a significant regulating role between marital co-governance and cost stickiness; （4）Further research finds that the involvement of relatives from both husband and wife significantly increases cost stickiness; （5）After a series of robustness tests, the main results remain stable. The findings of this paper have opened up the mechanism of internal cost control of family enterprises, and enriched the research on the influencing factors of cost stickiness. The research in this paper is also of enlightenment significance to deeply understand the characteristics of internal operation and management of family firms, improve the decision-making ability of private entrepreneurs, and improve the efficiency of resource allocation.