The Effect of Intellectual Capital on the Asymmetric Behaviour of Costs A Case Study of Industrial Companies in Egypt

Abstract

The objective of this research is to ascertain the naturae of the behaviour exhibited by marketing, administrative and general costs in industrial companies listed on the Egyptian financial market. Furthermore, the effect of intellectual capital comprising human capital, structural capital, employed capital on the asymmetric behaviour of costs Marketing, Administrative, and General will be tasted. The research sample consisted of 23 industrial companies for the period 2018-2022, Secondary quantitative data was collected from the financial statements and annual reports published on the websites of the studied companies, this data was then analysed using Eviews 10 and SPSS.V.25. The research demonstrated that selling, administrative, and general costs exhibit an asymmetric sticky behavior. Furthermore, the inverse effect of human capital, structural capital and employed capital on the asymmetric behaviour of costs (SA&G) was identified, indicating Egyptian companies management does not have a relatively long-term performance horizon with regard to the development of intangible assets Consequently, these companies tend to view selling, administrative and general costs as an expense leading to a reduction or elimination of these expenses when sales volume decreases resulting in lower commitment.