“互联网+”有利于降低企业成本粘性吗?

Will “Internet Plus” Help to Reduce the Cost Stickiness of Enterprises?

2020年,实体企业降成本仍将全面发力。在此背景下,文章以2013-2016年沪深A股上市公司为研究样本,探究了"互联网+"对企业成本粘性的影响及作用渠道。研究发现,总体来说,"互联网+"对企业成本粘性具有抑制效应。这种抑制效应在资产专用性较高、环境不确定程度较大和管理层自由裁量权较低的样本中比较显著。这表明,"互联网+"会通过降低企业调整成本和缓解管理层乐观预期这两条渠道来影响企业成本粘性。但文章并未发现通过抑制管理层机会主义来降低企业成本粘性的证据。进一步研究表明:"互联网+"对企业成本粘性的抑制效应具有一定的持续性;在区分不同成本要素后,"互联网+"对物资资源成本粘性的抑制效应更加显著。文章的研究为实施"互联网+"如何影响企业成本粘性提供了全新的认知,并有助于从"降成本"的角度为推进供给侧结构性改革提供政策建议。

In recent years,all sectors of society have achieved good results in promoting the supply-side structural reform. Significant progress was made in real estate destocking,excess capacity in coal and steel was cut,and the macro leverage ratio was basically stable. But it is slightly insufficient in "reducing costs and improving weak links". Especially in "reducing costs",there is still a huge room for improvement.Only by combining the macro-level "reducing costs" reform with the demand-side reform of micro market entities,can the optimal allocation of resources be realized and the purpose of lowering costs be achieved.In the practice of enterprise cost control,the phenomenon of "cost stickiness" is a manifestation of high cost.The existence of cost stickiness not only means that when the business volume increases,the input of enterprise production factors may be greater than its actual demand,resulting in excessive cost expenditure,but also means that when the business volume decreases,the input of human,material and financial resources does not decrease correspondingly,resulting in resource waste. Therefore,the analysis of the resource consumption ratio in the production and marketing process of Chinese enterprises,and the analysis of the key factors to reduce corporate costs,have practical value and theoretical significance for solving effective supply and releasing corporate vitality.In this paper,we use A-share listed companies from 2013 to 2016 as the research samples,and explore the impact of "Internet Plus" on the cost stickiness of enterprises and the channels of their action. The empirical study finds that,in general,"Internet Plus" has a restraining effect on the cost stickiness of enterprises. This restraining effect is more significant in the sample group with higher asset specificity,greater environmental uncertainty and lower management discretion. The above regression results show that "Internet Plus" will affect the cost stickiness of enterprises by reducing the adjustment cost of enterprises and alleviating the optimistic expectations of management. Further research finds that:(1) The restraining effect of "Internet Plus" on cost stickiness has a certain continuity.(2) To distinguish the different cost elements,"Internet Plus" restraining the cost stickiness of material resources is greater than the cost stickiness of human resources.(3) In the sample with lower asset specificity and less environmental uncertainty,"Internet Plus" aggravates the cost stickiness,and this kind of aggravating effect only exists in the sample group with low internal control quality.The findings of this study mean that the aggravating effect of "Internet Plus" on cost stickiness exists at the present stage,but the aggravating effect of "Internet Plus" on cost stickiness will be weakened with the improvement of various constraint mechanisms and governance systems of enterprises.The conclusions not only provide a new understanding of how "Internet Plus" affects the cost stickiness of enterprises,but also help to provide policy recommendations for promoting the supply-side structural reform from the perspective of "reducing costs".