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July 26, 2026SystemsOpen Access

Cost Asymmetry as Emergent Behavior in Complex Adaptive Organizational Systems: Environmental Uncertainty and the Managerial-Cognition Channel

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Authors

VOVincent O’ConnellPOPhilip Onderwaater

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Overview

Randomized trial investigates asymmetric cost behavior in firms, suggesting environmental volatility drives these patterns.

Key Points

  • This research aims to explore how environmental uncertainty influences the asymmetric behavior of costs in organizations.
  • Analyzed 163,415 U.S. firm-year observations from 1970 to 2012.
  • Measured environmental uncertainty using firm-specific sales volatility relative to industry.
  • Examined relationships between cost stickiness, anti-stickiness, and levels of uncertainty.
  • Cost stickiness is absent under low uncertainty, strengthening with rising uncertainty.
  • Anti-stickiness is present across all uncertainty levels but weakens as uncertainty increases.
  • Both cost behaviors are non-linear, peaking at intermediate-to-high levels of uncertainty.

Cite This Study

O’Connell et al. (2026) studied this question.

synapsesocial.com/papers/6a65a49fd3aea3239cd77219https://doi.org/10.3390/systems14080883
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