Sales · The SaaS that locks in through the free pilot, In enterprise software sales, the "land and expand" model illustrates escalation of commitment: the vendor first has a module adopted by one team (free trial or pilot), then gradually expands. Once the data is migrated, the teams trained and the processes adapted, the client has invested so much time and integration that switching supplier becomes prohibitive. The renewal negotiation is then conducted from a position of strength for the vendor, not through coercion, but through the cost of exit accumulated step after step.
Political · Vietnam, the prototype of escalation, The American engagement in Vietnam is the textbook case cited by Staw himself. Successive administrations increased the military resources despite the losses and the collapse of support, in part because "the sacrifices already made must not be in vain" and out of fear of losing face. Irving Janis analysed it as a fiasco of groupthink. Each reinforcement made withdrawal more costly politically: the logic of sunk cost prolonged a conflict that a rational decision taken "as of today" would have interrupted sooner.
Diplomatic · Concorde: the very name of the bias, The British and French governments continued to fund Concorde long after it was evident that the aircraft would not be commercially viable. The recurring argument, "we have already spent so much", gave the phenomenon its nickname, the "Concorde fallacy". In terms of intergovernmental negotiation, neither partner wanted to be the one who triggered the abandonment and "squandered" the shared investment: the escalation fed on the joint and public commitment of the two states.
Judicial · Shoreham: five billion for a plant never operated, Ross & Staw (1993) documented the decision by the Long Island Lighting Company to build the Shoreham nuclear power plant. Estimated at 75 million dollars in 1966, the cost exceeded 5 billion over twenty-three years. A negotiated agreement with New York State finally led to the abandonment of the facility without it ever having operated. The case shows how an organisation escalates its commitment, financial pressures, public justification, political context, until an external renegotiation finally allows the exit.
Business · Expo 86, the organisational prototype, Ross & Staw analysed the Vancouver World's Fair (Expo 86) as an "escalation prototype". As the projected deficits swelled well beyond the initial estimates, the decision-makers maintained and amplified the project rather than scaling it back, driven by the commitments already made, the public visibility and the milestones crossed. The study serves as a model for understanding how, internally, a project team negotiates with itself to continue a costly course.
Everyday life · The subscription one dares not cancel, An individual signs up to a gym after a trial, commits to an annual membership, buys the equipment. After a few weeks they stop going, but refuse to cancel: "I've already paid." This reasoning, in which one keeps funding a use that no longer exists so as not to "lose" the sums already paid, is the domestic illustration of the sunk-cost bias described by Arkes & Blumer. The right decision, to stop, runs up against the refusal to accept that the past investment was irrecoverable.
