Business Commons^™

From Well-Side Meetings To Pelican Strategy: A Context-Based Approach To Combat Corruption, Lili Yan

Pace International Law Review

This article takes up the question of what strategy is to be used among different communities to eradicate corruption across borders. The debate between two legal scholars, Steven Salbu and Philip Nichols, over the viability of extraterritorial application of anti-bribery laws remains thought-provoking when we look at the effectiveness of the OECD Anti-bribery Convention or FCPA in curbing corruption. Empirical research shows that firms from countries with extraterritorial legal restrictions do not necessarily refrain themselves from paying bribes in foreign transactions. This article ties the Salbu-Nichols’ debate, ISCT, mediating institutions theory, and Pelican Gambits strategy together to structure a context …

Strategies To Reduce Corrupt Practices At The Firm Level In Nigeria, Alexander Iloka Rajis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Corruption is harmful to businesses and impedes performance and growth. When business leaders fail to mitigate fraud and corruption, their business and the local economy suffer. Grounded in the principal-agent theory and the integrative social contract theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies business leaders in Nigeria use to reduce firm-level corrupt practices. The participants were six anticorruption officers at three firms who implemented successful strategies to reduce corrupt practices to enhance performance. Data collected came from semistructured interviews and company documents. Five themes emerged from the thematic analysis: bribery and corruption are part …

State-Owned Enterprises As Bribe Payers: The Role Of Institutional Environment, Noman Shaheer, Jingtao Yi, Sali Li, Liang Chen

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Our paper draws attention to a neglected channel of corruption—the bribe payments by state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This is an important phenomenon as bribe payments by SOEs fruitlessly waste national resources, compromising public welfare and national prosperity. Using a large dataset of 30,249 firms from 50 countries, we show that, in general, SOEs are less likely to pay bribes for achieving organizational objectives owing to their political connectivity. However, in deteriorated institutional environments, SOEs may be subjected to potential managerial rent-seeking behaviors, which disproportionately increase SOE bribe propensity relative to privately owned enterprises. Specifically, our findings highlight the importance of fostering …

Bribery And Export Intensity: The Role Of Formal Institutional Constraint Susceptibility, Randika Eramudugoda Gamage

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study explores the influence of home country formal institutional constraints on firm bribery payments and export intensity. Distinguishing between forms of formal institutional constraints based on their susceptibility to bribery, this study highlights the different mechanisms through which formal institutional constraints impact export intensity. I propose that highly susceptible formal institutional constraints will behave as incentives leading to increased bribery payments. In contrast, less-susceptible formal institutional constraints will act as an added cost, ex-post to bribery payments, in the bribery-export intensity relationship. These less-susceptible formal institutional constraints will further decrease export intensity. Utilizing a firm-level dataset from 25 countries, …

Enforcing The Fcpa: International Resonance And Domestic Strategy, Rachel Brewster

Faculty Scholarship

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), which bans corporations from offering bribes to foreign government officials, was enacted during the Watergate era’s crackdown on political corruption but remained only weakly enforced for its first two decades. American industry argued that the law created an uneven playing field in global commerce, which made robust enforcement politically unpopular. This Article documents how the executive branch strategically under- enforced the FCPA, while Congress and the President pushed for an international agreement that would bind other countries to rules similar to those of the United States. The Article establishes that U.S. officials ramped up …

Kpmg Global Anti Bribery And Corruption: Rising To The Challenge In The Age Of Globalization, Themin Suwardy, Poh Sun Seow, Pan, Gary

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

Corruption continues to corrode the global economy, 18 years after member governments of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) signed a convention1 that establishes legally binding standards to criminalize the bribery of public officials. Since then, a growing number of governments have passed anti-bribery and corruption (ABC) laws. The U.S. is no longer the lone policeman on the beat; the UK and other European governments have implemented anti-corruption regulations too, as have emerging economies including China and Brazil.

Despite tougher enforcement of regulations to combat bribery and corruption, illicit payments to counter-parties continue to burden economies, diverting resources …

The Sarbanes Oxley Act's Contribution To Curtailing Corporate Bribery, Karen Cascini, Alan Delfavero, Mario Mililli

WCBT Faculty Publications

In the wake of corporate scandals occurring in the early 2000s, a need for stricter regulation was deemed necessary by the investors of U.S. public companies. In 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SoX) was created. Accordingly, under the rules of SoX, U.S. corporations were faced with increased oversight and also needed to substantially improve their internal controls. As companies began to scrutinize their internal affairs more closely, some businesses detected other forms of criminal activity occurring internally, such as bribery. Those companies and individuals found to have committed bribery have violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA). Throughout this …

Bribery And Controversy In The Us And Global Market, Kathleen Thompson, Charlotte Medina

Undergraduate Review

Throughout the history of trade and business, there have always been alternative—and often unethical—ways of closing sales in the form of extra kick-backs and luxurious goods. In modern times these unethical incentives are referred to as bribes. More recently, the practice of bribery has been linked to high-profile corruption and fraud cases in the United States, rocking the international marketplace for companies such as Pfizer, Avon, Johnson & Johnson, and Daimler AG. However, many international companies actually welcome bribery as a way to compete with other companies in the global marketplace. When looking at bribery and its effect on the …

The Gratuities Debate And Campaign Reform – How Strong Is The Link?, George D. Brown

George D. Brown

The federal gratuities statute, 18 USC § 201(c), continues to be a source of confusion and contention. The confusion stems largely from problems of draftsmanship within the statute, as well as uncertainty concerning the relationship of the gratuities offense to bribery. Both offenses are contained in the same statute; the former is often seen as a lesser-included offense variety of the latter. The controversy stems from broader concerns about whether the receipt of gratuities by public officials, even from those they regulate, should be a crime. The argument that such conduct should not be criminalized can be traced to, and …

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act: Insights For Internal Auditors, Audrey A. Gramling, Dana R. Hermanson, Heather M. Hermanson

Faculty and Research Publications

Douglas Faggioli, president and CEO of Nature's Sunshine Products (NSP) made the above remarks as he accepted, on behalf of NSP, a 2004 "100 Best Corporate Citizens" award from Business Ethics magazine. NSP received the award two years in a row. Less than two years later, NSP would discover a bribery scheme in its Brazil operations that would expose it to Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Faggioli and the company's CFO, Craig Huff, along with NSP, would be plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit, and the SEC would fine each officer $25,000. …

International Movement To Deter Corruption: Should China Join?, Paul D. Carrington

Faculty Scholarship

Global concerns over the corruption of weak governments by firms engaged in transnational business are the source of an international movement that emerged in 1997. Special concern is presently directed at the weakness of enforcement of laws enacted in recent times to deter corrupt business practices in international trade that were enacted in response to that movement. One cause of weakness in law enforcement is the failure of China to share actively in those concerns and the efforts to address them. This essay will briefly record steps taken in other nations to address the concerns and the limited effectiveness of …

An Assessment Of The Impact Of The Sarbanes-Oxley Act On The Investigation Violations Of The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Karen Cascini, Alan L. Delfavero

WCBT Faculty Publications

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, a plethora of corporate scandals occurred. Due to these corporate debacles, corporate executives have been placed under fire. In response to such unethical conduct with regard to internal practices and financial reporting, legislation has been passed in order to ensure that corporations conduct their business in an ethical manner. The purpose of this paper is to assess the connection between the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOx), to determine whether SOx has influenced the FCPA’s investigative violation activities by examining the number of such investigations …