企業多角化與成本習性之關聯性分析

Abstract

本研究探討企業多角化程度與成本習性之關聯性。採用多角化策略之企業通常會面臨不確定的市場需求以及較高風險，其變動成本對固定成本之比例應較高，即成本彈性愈高，因此推論多角化程度與成本彈性呈正向關係。然而，企業採多角化策略常對未來營運持樂觀預期，不會輕易裁撤已投入資源，因此容易使成本隨著成本動因下降的幅度，不若其隨著成本動因上升的幅度大，而產生成本僵固性，故推論多角化程度與成本僵固性呈現正向關係。本研究以1989 年至2016年台灣上市櫃公司為研究對象，實證結果支持本研究對企業多角化程度與成本習性之預期。本研究亦進行多項其他測試：採用其他多角化衡量指標；考慮有併購歷史之企業應更積極於多角化；近十年之樣本面對更競爭的環境應更積極於多角化；以及考慮獨立董事的存在減輕因代理問題所導致的成本僵固性。實證結果皆支持企業多角化程度分別與成本彈性及成本僵固性具正向關係。

The study examines the relation between corporate diversification strategy and cost behavior. Firms involving in more diversified businesses face higher demand uncertainty and higher operational risks. These firms should use more variable costs but less fixed costs, resulting in high cost elasticity. Thus, the study predicts corporate diversification strategy to be positively related to cost elasticity. Further, firms diversifying businesses are often optimistic and confident about the operational outcomes from the committed resources. The positive prospect should lead to cost stickiness, where the costs increase with the increases in activities more than they decrease with the drop in activities. Thus, the study predicts a positive relation between corporate diversification strategy and cost stickiness. Using a sample of listed companies in Taiwan, the empirical results support the above predictions. A few robustness tests are performed: alternative business diversification measure; firms with history of mergers and acquisitions as an indicator of active diversification in businesses; a subsample of observations from recent ten years for measuring the diversification in setting of highly competitive environment; the board governance in ameliorating cost stickiness as caused by agency problems. The above results all support that corporate diversification strategy is positively related to cost elasticity as well as cost stickiness.