Team theory, garbage cans and real organizations: some history and prospects of economic research on decision-making in organizations

Abstract

This essay attempts to articulate and advance a long‐term agenda for organizational economics. The essay begins with a general discussion of four specific items on this agenda, and then moves to a more specific discussion of decision‐making in organizations—beginning with two polar‐opposite conceptions (team theory and garbage cans) and then describing several recent economic models. Part of the rationale for writing this essay is that this agenda has both substantive and methodological commonalities with the work of James March.