Corporate corruption prevention, sustainable governance and legislation: First exploratory evidence from the Italian scenario

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the main issues and drivers of sustainable corporate governance to prevent corruption, analysing the interaction between the principal governance body–Board of Directors–and the implementation and application of corruption prevention plans by pointing out exploratory evidence from the company sample. This paper is built upon two steps. First, the content analysis research method is applied, selecting a sample of Italian companies and analysing information from the corruption prevention plans to establish the role of the Board of Directors in the management of company's system. Second, the level of the implication of Board of Directors in drafting through the identification of the Global Indicator is investigated, measuring the degree of the Board of Directors' involvement and making use of the content analysis's results. Additionally, a linear regression between the Global Indicator, companies dimensional indicator and performance indicators is carried out with the aim to define variables affecting this process. The paper proposes exploratory evidence which shows a deep understanding of the governance body in the construction and application of the corporate corruption prevention plans, taking into consideration crucial information from: the anti-corruption national legislation (Law 190/2012), risk management and organization model (Legislative Decree 231/2001), corporate sustainability and compliance programs adopted by companies. The originality of the findings derives from the need to establish an integrated sustainable corporate governance model directed at preventing corruption. Thus, this paper proposes not only the analysis of the Italian companies' compliance sustainable models to prevent corruption in their corporate governance but shows the path for future research on the topic.