The Price of Kindness: Micro Foundations and Cultural Roots of Organizational Bribery

Abstract

We analyze why people engage in organizational bribery, in particular countries in emerging markets with a relationship-oriented culture. Specifically, we conducted in-depth interviews among leaders in corporates from various industries in Thailand to understand how the cultural roots of bribery has challenged the implementation and effectiveness of the anti-corruption campaigns. By using a grounded theory approach to analyze the data, we identify a unique form of bribery of donation, motivated by kindness tradition and merit accumulation, rooted in Buddhist culture in the Thai context, which increases the economic and social cost for not participating in bribery. As such bribery is no longer perceived as a moral issue as portrayed in previous research. We develop a theoretical model of bribery based on our data structure and findings, and provide implications for both local and multinational firms, as well as policy makers in dealing with bribery in emerging markets.