Deciding on where the jobs go: The role of government in business site location decisions.

摘要

In all fifty states and in countless jurisdictions, economic development agencies offer a myriad of financial and tax incentives to private firms under organizational charters to create new jobs, help retain existing jobs, and stimulate economic growth. Prior research results are inconclusive as to the effectiveness of these incentives. Some research concludes that states with strong assets such as a well-educated workforce and a good location are more attractive to employers than financial incentives offered by states. So what is the real attraction?;The research addresses the following questions: (1) What factors inform public sector decision-making in business site location selection? (2) What factors inform private sector decision-making in business site location selection? (3) What are the dynamics between the public and private sector during the business site decision-making process?;The research was conducted using a dynamic decision-making theory model (Sterman, 1988) to analyze qualitative data capturing discrepancies between public and private sector actors' understanding of the decision-making process. Through secondary data analysis, 8 factors that influenced site location decisions in New Jersey were formalized and applied in a semi-structured guide to interview 27 experts. Each participant expert ranked the 8 decision-making factors that influence their business site location decisions and provided descriptive stories justifying their ranking.;Findings indicate that factors influencing business site location selection depend upon a public versus private sector point-of-view. Experts were then asked to clarify their rankings; their responses suggested incongruence in the roles played by public and private sector participants to influence the business site location outcomes. This dynamism between the public and private sectors underscores and helps to explain the initial discrepancies in the factor rankings.;Scrutiny suggests a decision-making model operating in three phases: determining strategy options, assessing and evaluating alternatives, and implementing decisions. The private sector is involved in all three phases of the decision-making process, while the public sector is involved only in the implementation phase. The public sector's disproportional role in the business site location decision-making process suggests the need for reinterpretation of government's role in economic development.