Specification of the relationship between the sales expenses and the sales in Jordanian companies

Traditional accounting has divided costs into variable and fixed costs, with changes made according to production levels, consequently, the cost behavior changes according to changes in the volume of production activity. Therefore, it has become necessary for successful management to understand cost behavior to face market changes and to adopt strategies that increase sales volume. The study period covered 12 years between 2006 and 2017. The study population was from Jordanian industrial shareholding companies. Using the regression models, the main results indicated that sales expenses could not explain changes in sales revenue in Jordanian companies; there was a significant relationship between sales expense changes and sales revenues, with sales expense changes having incremental information content over sales expense levels in explaining sales revenues. There was also no significant relationship between sales expense levels, sales expense changes, and sales revenues. The study suggests that future researches should be made in order to obtain business-oriented and specific information on how the decisions affect sales behavior. Overall, the study findings enhance our understanding about companies’ cost behavior and provide useful insights into financial and management accounting literature.