Technological innovation is characterized by large-scale investment, high conversion cost, long investment cycle, etc., which will profoundly affect corporate cost habits. Based on this, in order to empirically test the impact of corporate innovation on cost stickiness and its mechanism of action, the cost stickiness existence test model and its extension model were constructed. The above models used relevant data of A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2009 to 2021 under the premise of considering the truncation bias of patent data. It has been found that corporate innovation can significantly improve cost stickiness. The mechanism tests show that corporate innovation increases cost stickiness mainly through three paths: reducing the efficiency of supply chain resource operation, increasing the optimistic expectation of management, and aggravating the agency problem. Heterogeneity analyses show that the promotion effect of corporate innovation on cost stickiness is more significant in small and medium-sized private firms and firms in regions with a higher degree of industry competition. The findings have important implications for enhancing corporate resource allocation efficiency and realizing high-quality development.