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In economics and business decision-making, a sunk cost (also known as retrospective cost) is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Sunk costs are contrasted with prospective costs , which are future costs that may be avoided if action is taken. [ 3 ]
When some costs are sunk and some are not sunk, total fixed costs (TFC) equal sunk fixed costs (SFC) plus non-sunk fixed costs (NSFC) or TFC = SFC + NSFC. When some fixed costs are non-sunk, the shutdown rule must be modified. To illustrate the new rule it is necessary to define a new cost curve, the average non-sunk cost curve, or ANSC.
From the traceability source of costs, sunk costs can be direct costs or indirect costs. If the sunk cost can be summarized as a single component, it is a direct cost; if it is caused by several products or departments, it is an indirect cost. Analyzing from the composition of costs, sunk costs can be either fixed costs or variable costs.
“The sunk-cost fallacy refers to the tendency humans have to continue investing in a failing endeavor even when the costs and commitment spent outweigh the benefits,” explains Sarah Kelleher ...
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It is often important for businesses to distinguish between relevant and irrelevant costs when analyzing alternatives because erroneously considering irrelevant costs can lead to unsound business decisions. [1] Also, ignoring irrelevant data in analysis can save time and effort. Types of irrelevant costs are: [3] Sunk costs [4] Committed costs
A costly signal in which the cost of an action is incurred upfront ("ex ante") is a sunk cost. An example of this would be the mobilization of an army as this sends a clear signal of intentions and the costs are incurred immediately. When the cost of the action is incurred after the decision is made ("ex post") it is considered to be tying hands.
Cost is the planned cost estimate-to-complete (Cost ETC) of the project. This can usually be derived from earned value management planning by using the complement of the planned value (PV) (i.e., budgeted cost of work performed, or BCWS), which estimates what the sunk cost will be at key reporting points during the project. By subtracting the ...