What is Corporate Corruption? Defining and Understanding Corruption in Management

Abstract

Corruption – the misuse of formal power for private benefit – limits the development of the countries in which it occurs, is corrosive of well-functioning governments, and all too often results in systematic violations of human rights. Reflecting its importance, much academic attention has focused on understanding corruption. However, the existing academic literature focuses largely on corruption in government. Yet, corporations play a key role in much of the corruption that occurs in society and are important contexts for corruption themselves; they are also very different from governments and, we argue, deserve focused study and the development of a theory of corporate corruption. Furthermore, management researchers are uniquely positioned to contribute to the development of a theory of corporate corruption and to the invention of solutions to prevent it. In this article, we define and discuss the concept of corporate corruption and examine the current state of research on this important topic.