Motives, Opportunities, Fairness, and Intention of Bribery in International Business

• Main Authors: Chu-Hsin (Julie)Huang, 黃菊馨
• Other Authors: Wann-Yih Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/76337793689658201456

博士 === 國立成功大學 === 國際經營管理研究所博士班 === 101 === In many developing countries, bribery is a seemingly endemic problem and reducing this behavior has become a priority for many national governments, international intergovernmental bodies, non-governmental organizations, trade associations, and business organization. Currently, many studies have devoted their attentions on bribery, but mostly are from government officers’ perspective, who is assumed to be the recipients of bribery. However, only few studies discuss bribery from the bribery suppliers, which are business people. Although bribery exists for a long time and many studies have been done, however, the true reasons why firms engage in bribery remain unresolved. This study purposely explores and examines what are the motivations to bribe. Based on motivation-opportunity-ability (MOA) theory, this study addresses the basic motivations of firms to engage in bribery. Moreover, this study extends the concept of opportunity based on institutional theory and also fairness theory to address the research question under what conditions that firm’s motivations to bribe are strengthen or weaken on their behavioral intentions. Based on that background, this dissertation designed three series of studies. The first study employs qualitative (critical incident technique – CIT) to explore what are the motivations of business people to bribe and under what conditions that their motivations lead to stronger intentions to bribe. The second (survey) and third studies (experiment) are sequences of empirical studies to validate the findings of study one. From three studies, this dissertation asserts that three basic motivations to bribe are affiliation, achievement, and power motives. These motivations determine firm’s behavioral intentions related to bribery. This dissertation further posits that perceived fairness and environmental opportunities shape and reshape the effects of motivations and bribery intentions. When the outcomes are less than expected, organizations (individuals) tend to reconfigure their processes. Similarly, outcomes could strengthen or weaken the nature of affiliation, achievement, and power of organizations (individuals) on their bribery in abroad. Managerial and academic implications are presented, along with limitations for each study and future research directions.