This study investigates whether firms engage in peer‐based benchmarking in their decision‐making regarding selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) for a large sample of U.S. listed firms. Peer‐based comparison relates to comparing own performance against the performance of a meaningful reference group of other firms. SG&A are to a large extent discretionary, but optimal levels of (relative) SG&A are hard to assess. Based on the behavioural theory of the firm and institutional theory, we argue that peer‐based comparison is likely to be an important input to managers' SG&A decision processes. Results show that peer‐based comparison significantly drives changes in firms' reported SG&A. In addition, the effect of peer‐based comparison is found to depend on the firm's life cycle stage. Findings further indicate that peer‐based comparison has a significantly stronger effect in reference groups characterised by high(er) SG&A similarity. Results are robust to using several industry classification systems, as well as, multiple approaches to identify firm life cycles.

中文翻译：

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基于对等方的比较和公司的可自由支配成本决策

这项研究调查了在美国大量上市公司的销售，一般和管理费用（SG＆A）决策中，公司是否参与了基于同行的基准测试。基于对等方的比较涉及将自己的绩效与其他公司的有意义的参照群体的绩效进行比较。SG＆A在很大程度上是自由裁量权，但是（相对）SG＆A的最佳水平很难评估。基于企业的行为理论和制度理论，我们认为基于同行的比较可能是对管理者的SG＆A决策过程的重要投入。结果表明，基于同行的比较显着推动了企业报告的SG＆A的变化。此外，发现基于同行的比较的效果取决于公司的生命周期阶段。研究结果进一步表明，在以SG＆A相似性较高为特征的参考人群中，基于同伴的比较具有明显更强的作用。使用几种行业分类系统以及多种方法来确定公司的生命周期，结果是可靠的。