scholarly journals Deployment of whistleblowing as an accountability mechanism to curb corruption and fraud in a developing democracy

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 1335-1366 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Nnamdi Okafor ◽  
Festus A. Adebisi ◽  
Michael Opara ◽  
Chidinma Blessing Okafor
Keyword(s):  
Developing Country ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Corporate Fraud ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Accountability Mechanism ◽  
Program Institutionalization ◽  
Loss Of Dignity ◽  
Survey Protocol

PurposeThis paper investigates the challenges and opportunities for the deployment of whistleblowing as an accountability mechanism to curb corruption and fraud in a developing country. Nigeria is the institutional setting for the study.Design/methodology/approachAdopting an institutional theory perspective and a survey protocol of urban residents in the country, the study presents evidence on the whistleblowing program introduced in 2016. Nigeria’s whistleblowing initiative targets all types of corruption, including corporate fraud.FindingsThis study finds that, even in the context of a developing country, whistleblowing is supported as an accountability mechanism, but the intervention lacks awareness, presents a high risk to whistleblowers and regulators, including the risk of physical elimination, and is fraught with institutional and operational challenges. In effect, awareness of whistleblowing laws, operational challenges and an institutional environment conducive to venality undermine the efficacy of whistleblowing in Nigeria.Originality/valueThe study presents a model of challenges and opportunities for whistleblowing in a developing democracy. The authors argue that the existence of a weak and complex institutional environment and the failure of program institutionalization explain those challenges and opportunities. The authors also argue that a culturally anchored and institutionalized whistleblowing program encourages positive civic behavior by incentivizing citizens to act as custodians of their resources, and it gives voice to the voiceless who have endured decades of severe hardship and loss of dignity due to corruption.

Corporate governance challenges and opportunities in mitigating corporate fraud in Malaysia

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emelia A. Girau ◽  
Imbarine Bujang ◽  
Agnes Paulus Jidwin ◽  
Jamaliah Said
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Governance ◽  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Listed Companies ◽  
Probit Regression ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Board Size ◽  
Corporate Fraud ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose This study aims to examine the relationship between corporate governance and the likelihood of corporate fraud in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach The sample of fraudulent companies in this study is the public listed companies that were charged with furnishing false statements to the Securities Commission of Malaysia and Bursa Malaysia Securities Berhad and was listed in the Malaysian Securities Commission Enforcement Release from the year 2000 to 2016. The non-fraudulent companies, which are the control companies in this study, were selected from public listed companies listed in Bursa Malaysia, based on their similarity to the fraudulent companies in terms of time, size and industry type. The panel probit regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between corporate governance characteristics and the occurrence of corporate fraud. Findings The findings of this study suggest that board size and executive directors’ compensation are the corporate governance characteristics that can effectively combat corporate fraud incidences in Malaysia. The corporate governance features, namely the board of directors’ independence, frequency of board meetings, CEO duality, CEO’s age, and share ownership owned by directors and CEO, do not significantly influence corporate fraud incidences in Malaysia. Originality/value Although previous studies provide inconsistent findings on the association between board size and corporate fraud incidences, this study contributes to the existing literature by providing empirical evidence that smaller board sizes provide more effective monitoring functions to minimize corporate fraud incidences in the Malaysian context. The empirical evidence also supports the agency theory proposition where managers with high compensation will act in the best interest of shareholders and less likely to focus on their interests, thus deterring them from committing fraudulent acts.

scholarly journals Entrepreneurial activities in a developing country: an institutional theory perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 414-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emiel L. Eijdenberg ◽  
Neil A. Thompson ◽  
Karen Verduijn ◽  
Caroline Essers
Keyword(s):  
Developing Country ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Gender Disparity ◽  
Institutional Perspective ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Familial Support ◽  
Entrepreneurial Strategies ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activities

PurposeEntrepreneurship research in the context of developing countries has typically investigated the ways in which culture, politics or economic institutions prohibit or enable entrepreneurial activities using macro-level surveys and deductive designs. In contrast, the purpose of this paper is to take a micro-institutional perspective to study these three institutions influencing entrepreneurial activities in such a context.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis is based on inductive, qualitative field data from a challenging institutional environment, Tanzania. This includes two focus groups, one with experts and one with entrepreneurs; and 24 individual interviews with entrepreneurs.FindingsEntrepreneurial activities in Tanzania are not constrained only by bureaucracy and arbitrary enforcement, access to capital, competition and consumer spending, but also by language barriers, negative media portrayals and gender disparity. In their favour, recent trade policy, opening up of borders and changing gender relations, has led to more opportunities, but just as important are traditional festivals, marital gift-giving and familial support. Entrepreneurs respond to institutional constraints in many creative ways, including undertaking entrepreneurial strategies, developing inner strength, joining associations, giving back to communities and skilfully managing relations with authorities.Originality/valueThe fine-grained discussion of the findings of this study specifically contributes to theory by illustrating the constraining and enabling role of under-represented institutions, such as festivals and marriages, as well as entrepreneurial creative responses that define everyday entrepreneurial life in a developing country.

scholarly journals Rhetorical impression management in the letter to shareholders and institutional setting

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 404-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Aerts ◽  
Beibei Yan
Keyword(s):  
Impression Management ◽  
Text Analysis ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Litigation Risk ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Linguistic Style ◽  
Country Level ◽  
The Us ◽  
Institutional Differences

Purpose Using composite style measures of the letter to shareholders, the purpose of this paper is to elaborate dominant rhetorical profiles and qualify them from an impression management (IM) perspective. In addition, the paper examines how institutional differences affect rhetorical profiles by comparing intensity and contingencies of rhetorical profiles of UK and US companies. Design/methodology/approach The authors use automated text analysis to capture linguistic style characteristics of a panel of UK and US companies and employ factor analysis to determine rhetorical profiles. Next, the authors investigate company-level and country-level determinants of a company’s rhetorical stance. Findings The authors document three prominent rhetorical profiles: an emphatic acclaiming stance, a cautious plausibility-based framing position, and a logic-based rationalizing orientation. The profiles represent distinct self-presentational logics and have different readability effects. Rhetorical IM is stronger in US companies, but higher expected scrutiny in the US institutional environment affects sensitivity of rhetorical postures to message credibility and litigation risk, while marginally increasing the less litigation-sensitive defensive framing style in US letters. Originality/value The authors develop replicable archival-based measures of prominent rhetorical IM traits of the shareholder letter, based on composite style features. The authors argue that they are qualitatively different from content-based IM proxies. The authors investigate their institutional and organizational relevance by examining how company features and country-level differences affect incentives and constraints for style-based rhetorical IM.

scholarly journals Where less is more: institutional voids and business families in Sub-Saharan Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 158-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Murithi ◽  
Natalia Vershinina ◽  
Peter Rodgers
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Institutional Voids ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Less Is More ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Political Economic

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to offer a conceptual interpretation of the role business families play in the institutional context of sub-Saharan Africa, characterised by voids within the formal institutional setting. Responding to calls to take a holistic perspective of the institutional environment, we develop a conceptual model, showcasing the emergence of relational familial logics within business families that enable these enterprising organisations to navigate the political, economic and socio-cultural terrain of this institutional context. Design/methodology/approach The authors undertake a review of extant literature on institutional theory, institutional voids, family business and business families and examine the relevance of these theoretical constructs in relation to the institutional environment of Sub-Saharan Africa. The authors offer tentative propositions within our conceptualisation, which the authors discuss in an inductive fashion. Findings The review underlines the relevance of informal political, economic and socio-cultural institutions within the sub-Saharan context, within which the family as an institution drives business families engagement in institutional entrepreneurship. In doing so, the authors argue business families are best positioned to navigate the existing Sub-Saharan African institutional context. The authors underline the critical relevance of the embeddedness of social relationships that underpin relational familial logic within the sub-Saharan African collectivist socio-cultural system. Originality/value By challenging the assumptions that institutional voids are empty spaces devoid of institutions, the authors offer an alternative view that institutional voids are spaces where there exists a misalignment of formal and informal institutions. The authors argue that in such contexts within Sub-Saharan Africa, business families are best placed to harness their embeddedness within extended family and community for entrepreneurial activity. The authors argue that family and business logics may complement each other rather than compete. The discussions and propositions have implications for future research on business families and more inclusive forms of family organisations.

scholarly journals Greater fit and a greater gap

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 561-594
Author(s):  
Steven A. Brieger ◽  
Dirk De Clercq ◽  
Jolanda Hessels ◽  
Christian Pfeifer
Keyword(s):  
Life Satisfaction ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Entrepreneurial Activity ◽  
Worker Rights ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Person Environment Fit ◽  
High Power Distance ◽  
High Degree ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Low Uncertainty

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand how national institutional environments contribute to differences in life satisfaction between entrepreneurs and employees. Design/methodology/approach Leveraging person–environment fit and institutional theories and using a sample of more than 70,000 entrepreneurs and employees from 43 countries, the study investigates how the impact of entrepreneurial activity on life satisfaction differs in various environmental contexts. An entrepreneur’s life satisfaction arguably should increase when a high degree of compatibility or fit exists between his or her choice to be an entrepreneur and the informal and formal institutional environment. Findings The study finds that differences in life satisfaction between entrepreneurs and employees are larger in countries with high power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, extant entrepreneurship policies, low commercial profit taxes and low worker rights. Originality/value This study sheds new light on how entrepreneurial activity affects life satisfaction, contingent on the informal and formal institutions in a country that support entrepreneurship by its residents.

scholarly journals Shopping list development and use of advertisements’ pre-store food-buying practices within different socio-economic status areas in South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 119 (12) ◽  
pp. 2880-2902
Author(s):  
Rodney Graeme Duffett ◽  
Crystal Foster
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Developing Country ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Low Ses ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Shopping List ◽  
Food Shopping ◽  
Food Buying Practices

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a difference in the development of shopping lists and use of advertisements as pre-store food-buying practices in terms of planned shopping by South African consumers who dwell in different socio-economic status (SES) areas. The paper also considers the influence of shopper and socio-demographic characteristics on pre-store food-buying practices in a developing country. Design/methodology/approach A self-administered questionnaire was used to survey 1 200 consumers in retail stores in low, middle and high SES areas in South Africa. A generalised linear model was employed for the statistical analysis of pre-store food-buying practices within the SES area groups in a developing country. Findings South African consumers that reside in high SES area displayed the largest of shopping list development, while consumers who dwell in low SES areas showed the highest incidence of advertisement usage. Several shopper and socio-demographic characteristics were also found to have an influence on pre-store food-buying practices in different SES areas in South Africa. Research limitations/implications A qualitative approach would offer a deeper understanding of consumers’ pre-store food shopping predispositions as opposed to the quantitative approach, which was adopted for this study. A longitudinal design would also provide a more extensive representation of pre-store food shopping practices over a longer time frame than cross-sectional research. The survey was conducted on Saturdays, whereas consumers who shop during the week may have different shopping and socio-demographic characteristics. Practical implications Astute food brands, marketers and grocery stores could use the findings of this study to assist with their marketing efforts that they direct at consumers in different SES areas in South Africa and other developing countries. Social implications The findings of this study may assist consumers in developing countries, especially those who reside in low SES areas, with food-buying strategies to reduce food costs, make wiser purchase decisions and reduce shopping. Originality/value No study (to the best of the researchers’ knowledge) has considered shopping list development and use of advertisements’ pre-store food-buying practices in different SES areas in a developing country. Furthermore, there is a dearth of research analysing shopper and socio-demographic characteristics in relation to pre-store food-buying practices among different SES areas in developing and developed countries.

Policy and institutions facilitating entrepreneurial spin-offs: USA, Asia and Europe

2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Caiazza ◽  
David Audretsch ◽  
Tiziana Volpe ◽  
Julie Debra Singer
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
The Usa ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
National Analysis ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Cross National

Purpose – Existing work documents the role that institutional setting plays in the process of spin-off creation. However, despite decades of studies, scholars have not clearly explained why some regions are more involved in spin-off activity than others. Drawing from institutional theory, the purpose of this paper is to compare different institutional settings identifying factors affecting the general environment capability to support spin-off activity of a specific region. Design/methodology/approach – The authors utilize a cross-national analysis of American, Asian, and European areas identifying factors affecting their different rate of spin-off activity. This study contributes to the policy debate concerning entrepreneurship and how best to spur spin-off activities. Findings – In this paper, the authors identify the general and specific factors that explain the cross-national diversity in spin-off creation. The authors then perform an analysis of the impact of these factors in various regions of the USA, Asia, and Europe, providing evidence for the necessity of specific combinations of these factors. Originality/value – The paper offers a new perspective on the causes of spin-offs through a cross-national analysis of many areas around the world.

Building insurance through an NGO

2016 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Christine Bélanger
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Crop Insurance ◽  
Specific Training ◽  
Close Collaboration ◽  
Agricultural Insurance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Level Of Education ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

Purpose – This paper is based on a crop insurance implementation currently undergoing in Haiti. The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a program tailored to rice production in the Artibonite Valley, the challenges and opportunities that are arising from the exercise as well as pitfalls and ways to avoid them. Design/methodology/approach – The Système de Financement et d’Assurances Agricoles en Haïti’s approach for the development of crop insurance is in accordance with 13 concepts considered essential in the implementation of agricultural insurance programs. The case study is presented through each of these 13 fundamental concepts. Findings – The paper provides an insight on challenges any organization will face when implementing crop insurance for smallholder farmers. It points out notably that close collaboration of executing agencies with local partners is essential from data collection through insurance development and delivery and that all participants should receive a specific training tailored to their level of education and understanding. Social implications – Haiti is one of the poorest countries on the planet. Smallholder farmers could benefit a lot from crop insurance. It could help them stabilize their income when facing crop losses due to natural hazards or uncontrollable natural events. Originality/value – This paper fulfills an identified need to share real case studies exposing challenges faced when implementing crop insurance for smallholder farmers.

Gender gap in innovation: an institutionalist explanation

2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 410-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inmaculada Carrasco
Keyword(s):  
Gender Gap ◽  
Institutional Environment ◽  
Gender Segregation ◽  
Structural Equations ◽  
Family Responsibilities ◽  
Gender Perspective ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Innovative Behaviour ◽  
And Gender

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to contribute to knowledge on innovation from a gender perspective, and to investigate how environment affects the process of innovation by women. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical study uses a Structural Equations Model of a Partial Least Squared (PLS) technique. Data of 40 countries from around the world were collected from 2008. Findings – Institutional environment matters for innovative activity by women. An innovative thinking is required for integrating the gender perspective in innovative milieus in order to enrich, diversify and promote stronger innovation activities, mobilising unexploited opportunities for managers in the business sector, and for policy makers in the public one. Research limitations/implications – A new sex-disaggregated dataset will allow us to enlarge and improve upon this study. A longitudinal study would be extremely useful, but for the moment, there are no available data of this kind. Practical implications – Policies designed to reduce the gap for women in innovation activities have to fight against gender segregation in the job market and gender differences in education and training. They must increase flexibility in the workplace, provide more help to conciliate family and working lives, and reduce the gap in family responsibilities taken on by women. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the cross-over of knowledge between innovation and gender, and reduces the lack of information on how external factors may impact innovative behaviour by gender.

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