An Analysis of Bribery in Contemporary Business: A Literature Review

This literature review examines the pervasive issue of bribery within contemporary business practices. It delves into the definition and various forms of corruption, highlighting its detrimental effects on business credibility, profits, and democratic development, particularly in emerging markets. The review explores the causes of bribery, including weak accountability, poor civil society, and the influence of multinational corporations, and analyzes its impact on economic growth, investment, and employee ethics. Key findings reveal that bribery leads to inefficiency, resource mismanagement, and loss of customer trust. The review provides real-world examples, such as the GlaxoSmithKline and Alcatel cases, to illustrate the consequences of bribery. Finally, the review offers recommendations for combating bribery, emphasizing the importance of anti-bribery policies, ethical behavior, and assessing potential risks. The conclusion underscores the long-term negative implications of corruption on economic growth, capital formation, and sustainable development.

Bribery is a practice in contemporary business
Literature Review

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Literature Review............................................................................................................................1
Overview of the research type.........................................................................................................2
Key Findings....................................................................................................................................3
Example to support the case............................................................................................................4
Recommendations to deal with the bribery in business...................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
Corruption leads to the diminished business climate when the public interest is put at risk. It
takes different forms that include the graft, bribery and extortion, which leads to reducing
business credibility and profits when professionals misuse the positions for the personalised gain.
The corruption includes the range of different crimes where bribery is about the limitations to
give or accept the payments of the other illegitimately advantages. Hence, the report will focus
on the bribery and its significance at the corporate and government levels. It tends to create
major distortion of trading with undermining the democratic development for emerging the
markets. The workers or the staff of the firm have an illicit relation with the company
stakeholders to make money, which starts with poorly paid jobs (Sedlenieks, 2017). The bribery
is beyond the horizons which has a greater inclination towards the country economic, political
and the employability downfall.
Literature Review
The bribery is the widespread crime in the companies, but they are mainly concerned with the
cost benefit analysis with making more bribes. The research recognizes about how the corruption
is mainly due to the weak accountability of public institutions with poor civil society that tends
to lower down the educational qualifications with worsening certain economy policies. The
corruption comes with the international financial market, where the companies which are
working overseas find it difficult to tackle the gifts and the attractive prices to keep up the peers
of the corporate world. The corruption in business deals with the enhancement of the
development of free and fair trading and economic development (Sikka & Lehman, 2015). The
Multinational firms tend to launch to a new market, thereby, winning the contracts by bribing

mainly at the higher prices. The domestic market firms are also not able to afford to the higher
bribe ends in a negative scale of business. The multinational firms are concerned about the public
work construction and defence sectors. The demand side bribery with liberalisation has a major
impact on the bureaucratic corruption where the value varies with the rise in demand of bribe.
This is called as the benefit effect which leads to the non-monotonic relation between the
liberalisation and corruption.
The effects of bribery are widespread on the business and economy growth where it is stated that
the companies are working on taking over the market segments. The attempt is made to earn
income through the illegal means which result in the advantage for the parties and the giver gains
the profit by getting the order (Köbis, van Prooijen, Righetti, & Van Lange, 2017). The pressure
about the current value makes the country in debt with rising inflation. As a result, the higher
inflation directly affects the government officials to ask for a higher bribe with continued
inflation and cycle of bribery.
Overview of the research type
The survey has been conducted which includes the analysis about the bribery which prevent the
open market system and then restricts the benefits for the trade agreements as well. There are
negotiations for the liberalisation with public officials handling the fear of control loss. The
economic effect of bribery leads to reducing the economic growth of the country which leads to
decrease in the investments of FDI. The research highlights about the lack of quality in services
to demand and focus about the needs to pay for it. The corruption in education leads to the
corruption at work and business. The investigation relies on the secondary evidence from the
journal articles and from the internet (Li, Yao & Ahlstrom, 2015). It includes the understanding

of the economic development with increase in country’s real per capita income which has
affected the broader segments of population. It also leads to the enhancement of resource
productivity with new stocks of resources that are generated every year. The lack of the proper
justice leads to increased chances of unemployment. The poor health and hygiene in certain
countries with more corruption can lead to the lower quality of services which is done to save
money by the contractors and the other officials involved. Corruption in the government
department lets the industry to decrease in foreign investment where the countries find it difficult
to manufacture the cheap qualities products with strict standard control institutes. The analysis of
the corruption is known where there are standards set for focusing on addressing the different
problems related to the specific race, ethnicity, religion or tribe which might corrupt behaviour if
there are certain action garners increased reputation. There are different factors related to the
legal and economic downsides of country. The focus is on the efficient firms which tend to make
use of the bribes solely to reduce the cost of transaction with governmental flaws and some
bureaucratic problems (Kassem & Higson, 2016).
Key Findings
It has been seen that bribery and corruption in business leaders to the major problem of
inefficiency where the resources are tampered with and used in an improper manner and in this
way the efficiency of the business also suffers. There are insufficient resources that are available
for running the business and maintaining the operation levels, where the corruption of business
professionals tends to break, and the customers lose the respect and trust. It requires the company
officials to spend some time and the resources to properly monitor about the fallout to re-assure
the clients about whether the company is still viable. The legal fees, penalties and the other
relations that are set helps in re-routing all the important resources that are coming from the core

business which leads to the inefficiency to make use of the company funds and personnel
(Matheson, Schwab & Koval, 2018). The loss in resources can lead to major corruption which
can have lead to other economic impacts on business. The employee ranking is generally seen to
be inflated to cover up the corrupt professional activities with the cost of increasing the
employee ranking in addition to the embezzlement. The prices can also be seen to be inflated
when the corruption takes place out of the company which is done in the form of corrupt
government officials taking bribes from other people. The customers tend to pay for the vendor
corruption with purchase of agents who require certain payoffs with vendor skim profits to rise
the pricing and cover all the illegal activities. The investors are considered to be the sceptical
factors to do the business where the companies and municipalise are mainly for the corruption.
Hence, one needs to seek for the investments to grow the firm or sell the investments for a better
living. The competition is unfairly affected when there are investor’s risks which is multiplied
through by changing the climate of business which follows certain corrupt practices of business.
The diligence is defeated with the changing facts, when it comes to corruption. It includes the
increased crime with adding to the roles of crime fighting government agencies, policies
department and other internal investigators. The effect of corruption and bribe can end up
feeding the interests of the black market with supporting the efforts to properly organise the
crime and the activities infiltrating the different levels of business. The corruption tends to beget
with continuing the criminal activity, when it is seen to go undetected (Wu, Chandramohan &
Bali, 2016). There have been major effects of corruption with third world countries which is
evidence and widespread and America is in competition and greed to outweigh the society good.
The corruption fuels and increases the growth for the criminal enterprises which affects the
society in which it has been operating the business setup.

Example to support the case
In 2013, the Chinese company named GlaxoSmithKline was involved in the bribery act and the
news agency reported that the policy investigation into the bribes paid by the drug manufacturer
GSK. It indicated that the bribes were organised and paid by GSK China and not by the
individuals who were operating in the prerogative areas, where reports were set by the company,
initially. The police also alleged that the corporate parent merely went through the different
motions of the internal auditing process which indicates the knowledge and bribery acceptance.
The case suggests about the Chinese government who is working on widely handling the
publicized arrests and the convictions for bribery which have not yet been served as a sufficient
deterrent to the corrupt services by the different corporations in the foreign world (Osburg,
2018).
The other bribery event in corporate world includes Alcatel in Costa Rica, where the company
had to pay US $10 million for the reparations for the social damage which were caused mainly
due to the bribes. There have been contracts to provide certain mobile phone services in the
country where the case is notable for the applications of concept of social damage and resulting
order of compensation to the different citizens of Costa Rica.
It has been seen that the education centres and the other training institutes tend to permit for
starting and providing education. They are given the permits to start providing the education
which is based on the infrastructure and the recruitment setup for the eligible staff. The
management try to bribe the quality inspectors where there is no sufficient eligible staff for
getting the permission from the inspections that leads to unemployment (Zyglidopoulos, Hirsch,
Martin de Holan, & Phillips, 2017).

Recommendations to deal with the bribery in business
In order to deal with the bribery, it is always recommended to assess & analyse the situation that
might lead to a great deal of pressure on an individual. It is important to maintain the presence of
mind as the bribe come in moments when one expects it least. Hence, it is important to notify the
superior immediately and provide a full account of choosing the delays related to notifying the
proper authorities with integrity and credibility. The making of necessary documentation with
physical evidence help in avoiding the hard when the bribe is sent to you in an anonymous
manner through mails or courier. According to the laws, the companies and government agencies
are urged to implement the anti-bribery policies which are tailored to the business. Hence, to
stamp out the bribery, there are countries who are encouraging the employers to sever the
employment relationship and bring in criminal charges against the employees who tend to
perpetrate the crimes. The companies and the employees need to try for balancing the ethical
behaviour with business interest (Torsello & Venard, 2016). The corruption is unethical, and the
firms tend to lose their business to companies with less diligence in adhering to the principle of
honesty.
Conclusion
There have been evidences related to the corruption consequences on the economic growth,
formation of capital and the poverty line. Here, the need is to examine the alleged costs of
corruption which is based on development from the normative and empirical dimensions which
has a major impact on the long-term sustainability of development. In short, the corruption might
appear to have benefits in the economy and development of business corporate world. This is the
misappropriation of finance and the government resources that are inimical to the long-term

sustainability development (Rose & Palifka, 2016). The presence of corruption has a major
implication for the economic growth in the longer-term sustainability. The suggestions are about
the heavy costs with underlying economic distortions that tend to trigger and undermine
institutions of administration and governance.
References
Kassem, R., & Higson, A. W. (2016). External auditors and corporate corruption: Implications
for external audit regulators. Current Issues in Auditing, 10(1), P1-P10.
Köbis, N. C., van Prooijen, J. W., Righetti, F., & Van Lange, P. A. (2017). The road to bribery
and corruption: Slippery slope or steep cliff?. Psychological science, 28(3), 297-306.
Li, Y., Yao, F. K., & Ahlstrom, D. (2015). The social dilemma of bribery in emerging
economies: A dynamic model of emotion, social value, and institutional uncertainty. Asia
Pacific Journal of Management, 32(2), 311-334.
Matheson, V. A., Schwab, D., & Koval, P. (2018). Corruption in the Bidding, Construction and
Organisation of Mega-Events: An Analysis of the Olympics and World Cup. In The
Palgrave Handbook on the Economics of Manipulation in Sport (pp. 257-278). Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham.
Osburg, J. (2018). Making business personal: corruption, anti-corruption, and elite networks in
post-Mao China. Current Anthropology, 59(S18), S149-S159.
Rose-Ackerman, S., & Palifka, B. J. (2016). Corruption and government: Causes, consequences,
and reform. Cambridge university press.

Sedlenieks, K. (2017). Rotten talk: Corruption as a part of discourse in contemporary Latvia.
In Between morality and the law (pp. 127-142). Routledge.
Sikka, P., & Lehman, G. (2015). The supply-side of corruption and limits to preventing
corruption within government procurement and constructing ethical subjects. Critical
Perspectives on Accounting, 28, 62-70.
Torsello, D., & Venard, B. (2016). The anthropology of corruption. Journal of Management
Inquiry, 25(1), 34-54.
Wu, X., Chandramohan, K., & Bali, A. S. (2016). Corporate governance and bribery: Evidence
from the world business environment survey. In Financial Crimes: Psychological,
Technological, and Ethical Issues (pp. 219-234). Springer, Cham.
Zyglidopoulos, S., Hirsch, P., Martin de Holan, P., & Phillips, N. (2017). Expanding Research on
Corporate Corruption, Management, and Organizations.
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