Abstract: The study aims to find differences in determinants of asymmetric cost behavior of manufacturing firms between actual and expected cases in Iraq region. Five cement factories have been selected and indexed statements monthly from 2006-2015 using nonlinear function by regression analysis. This study analyses determinants of asymmetric cost behavior in actual case compared to expected case in the business market. The results show that costs become sticky with changes in sales, prices, inventory and demand under business market decisions by expected case but costs were anti-sticky with same changes under normal decisions by the actual case. It means that manager’s decisions are driven by economic reasons such as adjustment costs, market prices and demand uncertainty as well as managers understanding. The deliberate manager’s decision factors impact differently on the asymmetric cost behavior of actual and expected performance cases. It can be concluded that managers understand the economic fluctuations of business market when they adjust their resources costs.