The effect of cost stickiness on dividend stickiness with emphasis on cash holdings

Deciding on resource adjustment costs in terms of efficient decisions or opportunistic behaviors of managers, on the other hand, the existence of liquidity in the company to meet the expectations of shareholders, increase the company's value or to promote the personal interests of managers, can be effect cost behavior and consequently dividend behavior.  Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of cost stickiness on dividend stickiness with emphasis on maintaining the cash holdings of companies listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange. This research is applied in terms of purpose and correlation and post-event in terms of method. In order to test the research hypotheses, 154 companies were selected in the period 2013-2021 and analyzed using multiple regression models. The results showed that cost stickiness at the operational level has a significant positive effect and at the total cost level and at the industry level has a significant negative effect on dividend stickiness which indicates the ability to control and manage operating costs and the involvement of managerial decisions in adjusting resources using the main operations of production and sales of the company. The interaction effect of cash holdings with cost stickiness at the operational level, total costs and at the industrial level has a negative effect on dividend stickiness