Cognitive sunk costs are the social and psycho firm habits and routines that prevent firms from logical costs associated with altering seeking economically feasible alternatives. Cognitive sunk costs include, for example, employeesfears about learning new skills or competencies, a firm’s reluctance to digress from its founder’s vision, management’s concern that resource changes will erode management’s power, and an unwillingness on the part of the top management team to be disloyal to corporate traditions.