Trade credit and cost stickiness with a focus on the agency problem and customer concentration

Understanding cost behavior in the case of changes in sales and examining the factors which affects asymmetric cost behavior lead to the greater awareness of managers' motivations and decisions. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between trade credit and corporate cost stickiness as well as the moderating effect of agency problem and customer concentration on the relationship. The sample of this paper includes 161 companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange in a period of 7 years from 2014 to 2020. Our results show that trade credit as an external governance mechanism has a negative relation with cost stickiness. In addition, the findings show that the agency problem strengthens the relationship between trade credit and corporate cost stickiness, however, customer concentration weakens that relationship. Our study contributes to the cost management literature through identifying one of the potential factors that can reduce cost stickiness in companies.