物资采购过程中存在的腐败问题及法律介入

企业的物资采购过程是容易滋生问题的环节,采购环节出现问题不仅容易败坏企业经营风气,破坏内部团结,更重要的是它将对企业造成重大损失,直接影响了企业经营的成败。由于采购过程有较多的人为因素介入,因此使得对物资采购过程的监管显得有些办不从心。本文试图通过引入法律因素,探讨在法律背景下加强物资采购过程监控的可能性。     

Moral Disengagement in Processes of Organizational Corruption

This paper explores Albert Bandura's concept of moral disengagement in the context of organizational corruption. First, the construct of moral disengagement is defined and elaborated. Moral disengagement is then hypothesized to play a role in the initiation of corruption by both easing and expediting individual unethical decision-making that advances organizational interests. It is hypothesized to be a factor in the facilitation of organizational corruption through dampening individuals’ awareness of the ethical content of the decisions they make. Finally, it is hypothesized to contribute to the perpetuation of corruption in organizations, because if individuals who have a greater propensity to morally disengage are more likely to make decisions that advance organizational interests regardless of the ethicality of those decisions, they may also be rewarded for those decisions in terms of organizational advancement. Together these studies form an argument that moral disengagement plays an important role in processes of organizational corruption.     

政府采购腐败的机理分析及其防范措施

本文认为,腐败是公共权力在民众与国家或官员之间委托代理运行的必然产物。在政府采购活动中,存在着"纳税人—政府—财政部门—政府采购机构—政府采购官员"这样一条长长的委托代理链,作为初始委托人的纳税人实际上没有行为能力,既不能在政府采购市场决策中签约,也不能从中直接受益,而其他委托代理人则由于利益关联会产生一系列政府采购腐败。政府采购腐败产生的根源主要是制度的缺失,也受非制度因素的影响。政府采购腐败的防范既需要政府采购制度的创新,也需要非制度措施的配合。对政府采购腐败的制度防范,一要完善采购制度,加大寻租成本,降低寻租收益,抑制寻租行为;二要建立政府采购公开制度,增加采购透明度,使政府采购行为各环节在相关法定程序及政府部门和社会的监督下进行;三要加强政府监管制度,健全政府采购招投标竞争机制。对政府采购腐败的非制度防范,一要完善政府采购相关法律体系,对政府采购的使用范围、管理权限、履约责任等政策性和技术性问题进行明确界定;二要加强政府采购人员教育工作,建立政府采购人员资格认证制度;三要努力提高各利益主体的相互监督意识,建立全方位监督体系。     

Moral Schemas and Business Practices: The Ethics of Guangzhou Migrant Marketers

This article explores the ethics of migrant marketers in Guangzhou. Data were collected from 357 migrant marketers who lived in Guangzhou. A model of Ethical Action has been developed to test the antecedents and outcomes of the ethical decision-making process. It measured moral intention using four ethical scenarios. The results show that the egoistic schema had a positive effect on their intention to act unethically, while the legislative schema exerted a negative effect. The results confirm that moral intention was a strong predictor of an individual’s subsequent actual behavior, and it fully mediated the influence of the legislative schema on actual behavior. This study adds to ethics literature by incorporating the construct of social identity and found a moderating effect between the legislative schema and moral intention. The relationships were stronger for individuals who were lower rather than higher in social identity. Analysis of these results lead to a discussion of the implications for marketing ethics in China.     

腐败侵蚀与财政支出扭曲

采用1995—2006年中国大陆省级面板数据,实证检验腐败对中国财政支出规模和结构的影响。研究发现:腐败激励了财政支出规模的膨胀,促使支出结构变形;腐败显著地推高了经济建设支出的比重,但降低了社会文教支出的比重。     

The Transformation of Transparency – On the Act on Public Procurement and the Right to Appeal in the Context of the War on Corruption

This article discusses the alleged anti-corruption effects of procurement reforms by presenting the European Act on Public Procurement and the increasing number of appeals filed by suppliers due to perceived misevaluations of tenders and perceived impairments of transparency. The delays and costs that arise from this right to appeal are studied in the Swedish context with the aim of contributing to the debate on corruption in two ways. First, instead of using the modern definition of corruption, the ancient definition is introduced to explain anti-corruption efforts, focusing on corruption as deviations from a pristine standard as opposed to corruption as the abuse of public power for private gain. Second, it will be argued that the fight against corruption in the practical implementation of the European Act on Public Procurement jeopardizes efficiency and might devaluate competence. However, striving for the total elimination of corruption–an evil that has to be fought disregarding the consequences–is integral in the war against it. Thomas Taro Lennerfors is a doctoral researcher in Industrial Economics and Management at the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden (KTH). He is specialised in managerial aspects of corruption.     

Local Public Corruption and Bank Lending Activity in the United States

Using a conviction-based measure, we find that local (state-level) public corruption exerts a negative effect on the lending activity of US banks. Our baseline estimations show that the difference in public corruption between, for example, Alabama, where corruption is high, and Minnesota, where corruption is low, implies that banks headquartered in the former state grant 0.55% less credit (or $3.52 million for the average bank) ceteris paribus. Using proxies for relationship lending and monitoring, we also find that these bank characteristics weaken the negative effect of public corruption on lending. These results are robust to tests that address endogeneity, to the use of perception-based measures of corruption, and after controlling for credit demand conditions. In further analysis, we show that these effects are more evident for smaller banks and banks operating in a single state. These findings provide evidence that public corruption could facilitate information asymmetry in the lending market and, thus, could hinder local development by reducing bank credit.

     

转型时期腐败和地方政府公共投资效率的关联分析

运用寻租经济学的分析方法,本文对经济转型时期地方官员腐败和公共投资效率两者之间的内在关联进行了综合研究,结合中国情形进行简要的实证分析,指出基于转型时期有效监管制度的缺失,腐败对地方政府公共投资的规模效率、结构效率以及产出效率都产生了不同程度的负面效应.也就是说,作为带有高成本特性的一种"暗税",腐败租金的存在不仅会导致区域内私人投资偏离社会期望的适度投资率,也会人为增大区域公共投资规模、扭曲区域公共投资结构,并降低区域内公共投资的产出水平.     

Rebounding from Corruption: Perceptions of Ethics Program Effectiveness in a Public Sector Organization

We examine the perceived importance of three organizational preconditions (awareness of formal ethics codes, decision-making techniques, and availability of resources) theorized to be critical for ethics program effectiveness. In addition, we examine the importance of ethical leadership and congruence between formal ethics codes and informal ethical norms in influencing employee perceptions. Participants (n=418) from a large southern California government agency completed a survey on the perceived effectiveness of the organization’s ethics program. Results suggest that employee perceptions of organizational preconditions, ethical leadership and informal ethical norms were related to perceptions of ethics program effectiveness. Based on these findings, organizations should evaluate the presence (or absence) of essential preconditions and take steps to ensure that leaders model espoused organizational values to foster perceptions of effective ethics programs.Kathie L. Pelletier is a doctoral student in the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences at Claremont Graduate University, 123 East Eighth Street, Claremont, CA 91711; e-mail: kathie.pelletier@cgu.edu. Her research interests include organizational ethics, ethical leadership, and women’s issues in the workplace. Michelle C. Bligh is an assistant professor of Organizational Behavior in the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences at Claremont Graduate University, 123 East Eighth Street, Claremont, CA 91711; e-mail: michelle. bligh@cgu.edu. Her research interests include charismatic leadership, political and executive leadership, and organizational culture.     

Moral Development and Narcissism of Private and Public University Business Students

In this study, researchers examined the assumption that senior-level undergraduate students from private colleges universities possess higher levels of moral and ethical development than students from public institutions. In addition, the researchers sought to determine (a) if there was a relationship between narcissistic personality traits and the level of moral reasoning, and (b) there was a difference in the level of narcissistic personality tendencies of business students from private vs. public institutions based on demographic and textual variables. A cluster sampling approach was used in the sample selection. The sample was limited to students majoring in general business at seven public and six private universities in North Dakota and Minnesota. A total of 269 subjects participated in the research project: 145 at private institutions and 124 at public institutions. The Defining Issues Test version 2 (DIT-2) and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) were used to collect data at seven public and six private institutions. Students from public and private universities scored similarly on the DIT-2. A significant difference between the NPI scores of the private college students and the public college students was found. No significant relationship was found between the NPI score and level of moral reasoning. Business educators should be concerned that an increase in the number of business ethics courses completed did not significantly impact students’ moral reasoning or narcissistic traits.     

Both Sides of the Coin: Motives for Corruption Among Public Officials and Business Employees

The aim of this study is to better understand why public officials and business employees engage in corruption. Insight into individual-level explanations for corruption was obtained with the aid of a self-report survey. The results suggest that the most indicative factors of whether or not individuals are corruption-prone are as follows: the moral conviction they have to refrain from corruption; perceptions of whether their colleagues approve of and engage in corruption; and difficulties experienced in complying with the rules on corruption. This result pattern was identical for public officials and business employees alike, and as a consequence, for both sides of corrupt acts. The latter indicates that the same motives may not only underlie corruption in both private and public sectors, but also the act of corruption in its active and passive forms. The results of the current study do not provide strong support for the assumption that economic considerations—expected costs and benefits—are crucial in predicting corruption. Based on the findings that norms and the perceived opportunity to comply are dominant factors in explaining corruption, this article focuses on the practical implications for the development of anti-corruption strategies within both public and private sectors.     

Public Versus Private Sector Procurement Ethics and Strategy: What Each Sector can Learn from the Other

The government purchasing market constitutes the largest business sector in the world. While marketers would benefit from a deep understanding of both sectors, how the two sectors differ in terms of ethics and strategy largely remains unknown. The purpose of this research, therefore, is to explore differences between the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors on two critical aspects of business-to-business procurement: ethics and strategy. Using survey data from a sample of 328 procurement professionals in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors, key differences are explored. Findings suggest that buyers in the for-profit sector are more likely to behave opportunistically. Conversely, the buyers’ leaders in the not-for-profit sector behave more opportunistically and are more willing to turn a blind eye to their subordinate buyers’ opportunistic behaviors. In addition, key differences in procurement strategy are unveiled suggesting that not-for-profit procurement practices have some room for improvement. Based on the findings, theoretical and managerial implications are drawn, and a future research agenda is proposed.     

European Competition vs. Global Competitiveness Transferring EU Rules on State Aid and Public Procurement Beyond Europe

As long as state aid outside the EU is unregulated, the European Commission faces a dilemma: either European firms will be disadvantaged in global competition by strict EU rules, or the Commission will come under pressure to relax the rules, thereby running the risk that fair competition within the EU will be undermined. As a consequence, the Commission attempts to promote EU rules on state aid and public procurement beyond EU borders — in non-member countries as well as at the WTO level. This article analyses the Commission’s channels of regulatory transfer and the factors accounting for its varying success. Bilateral cooperation provides many opportunities to spread European state aid rules, but decentralised enforcement at the national level remains ultimately deficient. Moreover, the transfer of European rules to the multilateral WTO depends heavily on the EU’s ability to reach prior consensus with its most powerful partner and rival, the US government.     

Corruption in international business

I analyze corruption in international business, presenting a critical assessment of the topic and providing suggestions for future research. I argue that corruption creates a laboratory for expanding international business studies because its illegal nature, the differences in perception about illegality, and the variation in the enforcement of laws against bribery across countries challenge some of the assumptions upon which arguments have been built, i.e., that managers can choose appropriate actions without major legal implications. Hence, I first provide suggestion for how to analyze the topic of corruption in future studies by analyzing the types, measures, causes, consequences, and controls of corruption. I then provide suggestions for how to extend leading theories of the firm by using corruption as a laboratory that challenges some of the assumptions of these theories: extending agency theory by analyzing the existence of unethical agency relationships; extending transaction cost economics by analyzing illegal transaction costs minimization; extending the resource-based view by studying corporate social irresponsibility capability; extending resource dependency by analyzing the ethical power escape; and extending neo-institutional theory by studying illegal legitimacy.     

Entrepreneurial Orientation and Corruption

Organizational corruption is a wide-spread negative aspect of economic activity, and a seemingly never-ending series of corruption scandals has been made public around the globe. Although research is performed in a broad variety of disciplines, ranging from psychology to management to law, a fully satisfactory explanation for the causes of organizational corruption has not been found. By looking at organizational factors as potential triggers for corruptive behavior, this study draws upon the concept of entrepreneurial orientation (EO). Diverse studies have shown that EO, as an antecedent to company performance, has a positive effect. Recent EO literature, however, indicates that EO has not only positive but also negative consequences. In this line of reasoning, this study builds upon principal agent theory and makes a first step in exploring the impact of EO on a negative aspect of business behavior, namely organizational corruption. We gathered survey data and publicly available data from 411 firms, inquiring for both acts of corruption from within the top management team over the last 3 years and the level of entrepreneurial orientation within the organization. Results show diverging effects along the individual dimensions of EO; they point to risk orientation as the dark side of EO, as it significantly increases the likelihood of corrupt behavior in companies. In contrast, innovation orientation, to a certain extent, counterbalances by reducing the likelihood of corrupt behavior.     

Bribery and Corruption: the OECD Convention on Combating the Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions

This article discusses the effects of the OECD Convention on Combating the Bribery of Foreign Public Officials, which was signed in 1997 and is due to be implemented by the signatory nation-states this year. The Convention represents the expansion of legal measures to combat the bribery of foreign public officials by individuals or corporations, and it has been accompanied by the Organisation of American States' Convention Against Corruption. Previously the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which applied only to United States individuals or corporations, 'stood alone in the world as a legal barrier to transnational bribery' (Low, Bjorklund and Atkinson 1998:245). This article proceeds in stages to evaluate implications of the Convention. Firstly the Convention is placed in the context of the increased focus on transnational business bribery in recent years. Second, the main points of the Convention are outlined. Third, the issues and problems posed by the Convention for business are discussed. Finally some themes regarding enforcement by the relevant authorities are outlined.     

"Corruption Networks and Implications For Ethical Corruption Reform"

The problem this article focuses on is not the isolated individual act of corruption, but the systematic, pervasive sub-system of corruption that can and has existed across historical periods, geographic areas, and political-economic systems. It is important to first understand how corrupt and unethical subsystems operate, particularly their network nature, in order to reform and change them while not becoming what we are trying to change. Twelve key system elements are considered that include case examples from Asia, Latin America, the Mediterranean, and North America. A key operating feature of corruption sub-systems is that they are relatively stable networks rather than exceptional, independent, individual events. Drawing on social network, social movement, and action-learning theories, six theory building propositions concerning ethical corruption reform are developed.     

政府采购审计中存在的问题及对策

随着我国经济进入新常态的发展阶段,政府采购的规模、数量和金额呈现出逐年递增的趋势。针对如何解决政府采购审计目前存在的问题,更好地发挥审计免疫系统的功能,本文详细介绍了政府采购审计的审计概念,再根据当今政府采购审计存在的问题,从加强审计工作的独立性以及加强审计队伍建设等几个方面提出对策。