TY - JOUR
T1 - Drinking poison to quench thirst
T2 - does bribery foster firm performance in China?
AU - Zhou, Kevin Zheng
AU - Wang, Kui
AU - Xu, Dean
AU - Xie, En
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by the General Research Fund from the Research Grants Council, Hong Kong SAR Government (Project No. HKU 17501219).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2022/8
Y1 - 2022/8
N2 - Whereas the damage of bribery on economic development is well recognized, controversy exists regarding whether it can benefit firm-level performance. By integrating the “grease” and “sand” views of bribery, this study offers the novel proposition that even though bribery may provide a means to deal with institutional voids, such that it fosters firms’ short-term performance (i.e., sales growth), it hinders long-term performance reflected in market capitalization. Moreover, the positive effect of bribery on sales growth decreases and its negative impact on market capitalization increases when the level of institutional development is higher. A longitudinal data set of Chinese listed firms lends strong support to our predictions, which in turn offer novel insights into bribery and its performance implications.
AB - Whereas the damage of bribery on economic development is well recognized, controversy exists regarding whether it can benefit firm-level performance. By integrating the “grease” and “sand” views of bribery, this study offers the novel proposition that even though bribery may provide a means to deal with institutional voids, such that it fosters firms’ short-term performance (i.e., sales growth), it hinders long-term performance reflected in market capitalization. Moreover, the positive effect of bribery on sales growth decreases and its negative impact on market capitalization increases when the level of institutional development is higher. A longitudinal data set of Chinese listed firms lends strong support to our predictions, which in turn offer novel insights into bribery and its performance implications.
KW - Bribery
KW - Emerging markets
KW - Firm value
KW - Institutional voids
KW - Sales growth
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85129040919&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.04.038
DO - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.04.038
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85129040919
SN - 0148-2963
VL - 147
SP - 505
EP - 517
JO - Journal of Business Research
JF - Journal of Business Research
ER -