Ambiguity and choice in processes of region development and company location

In recognition of its importance to an understanding of what "really goes on" in organizational decision-making, it is argued in this paper that the Garbage Can (GC) model should be applied to large empirical materials concerning different types of context, organization and process from those where it has been chiefly used. It is thereby shown that the model (1) is a good theoretical tool for interpreting processes of region development and company location--unless a dominating actor dictates the choice throughout, and (2) is also relevant to inter-organizational processes. Some new GC-theoretical concepts are derived from the confrontation of data and model: ambiguity avoidance, garbage collection, participant shift and selective garbage separation.