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This paper aims to determine the extent of anti-corruption information disclosure in the sustainability reports originating from Gulf countries.

This study utilizes a deeply rooted content analysis technique of corporate sustainability reporting, covering 66 Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) firms during 2014.

Strengthened by the application of the institutional theory, insight into the results points to a state of limited maturity regarding the disclosure of anti-corruption procedures in the region. More specifically, the results highlight the compliance in the reporting of conduct code, while reporting information on whistleblowing was significantly less in comparison. Firms in Qatar and the UAE ultimately release better informed reports, inclusive of detailed information on internal anti-corruption practices.

The aim of this study is to determine the extent of sustainability reporting in GCC companies under coercive isomorphism concept, with a special interest in the disclosure of anti-corruption practices. Ultimately, addressing the following questions: To what extent the GCC companies disclose their anti-corruption practices in the sustainability reports? What areas of anti-corruption disclosure the GCC is more concerned in their sustainability reports? To what extent do external forces under coercive isomorphism explain the extent of anti-corruption?

The purpose of this paper is to compare a new anti-corruption law approved by the Italian Parliament in November 2012 with Italian treaty obligations, the international evaluation reports on the Italian anti-corruption regime elaborated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Council of Europe, the best practice guidelines and other European models. The year 2012 has marked a turning point in Italian anti-corruption policy. In response to the low ranking that Italy has in all international anti-corruption indices, the critiques expressed in international reports on its anti-corruption regime, and the increasing pressure of public opinion, the Italian parliament approved the new anti-corruption law.

The Law was preceded by critiques in the mass media and has been labelled as a token act. To evaluate the effectiveness of the steps undertaken by the Italian Parliament, this paper compares the new law with Italian treaty obligations, the international evaluation reports on the Italian anti-corruption regime elaborated by the OECD and the Council of Europe, the best practice guidelines and other European models (i.e. the UK Bribery Act).

This comparison gives the author the opportunity not only to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the law but also to suggest efficient solutions that the Italian legislator could have adopted.

So far, this is the only analysis in English of the changes introduced in the Italian anti-corruption regime in 2012. Several international colleagues and practitioners have asked the author about the new regime and it was therefore deemed appropriate to address the issue in an academic article.

The purpose of this study is to examine the convergence and determinants of anti-corruption disclosures of extractive firms in Africa.

The study uses an unbalanced panel data of 27 firms operating in 5 African countries covering the period 2006 to 2018. Corporate data is collected from the global reporting initiative (GRI) database. The study uses an index to measure overall disclosure and individual items are coded as binary. The study uses fixed effects, panel logistic and panel-corrected standard error regression, depending on the type of dependent variable used.

The results indicate that the determinants of anti-corruption disclosure are membership in the United Nations global compact (UNGC) and Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, multi-national enterprise status, corruption perception index and human development index (HDI). Specifically, UNGC membership and multi-national status enhance the disclosure on corruption analysis. Countries with a high prevalence of corruption tend to disclose more on corruption analysis. Disclosure on corruption training is high among firms that are UNGC signatories, countries with a high HDI and countries with a high prevalence of corruption. There is a weak effect of firm-level, industry-level and country-level factors on disclosures on corruption response.

The study provides insights on the use of GRI 205: Anti-Corruption, which has relevant implications for practitioners, policymakers and the academic community.

This study is premier in exploring anti-corruption disclosure with a special focus on extractive firms in Africa. It is also unique in providing a test of both beta and sigma convergence among the firms.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether differences in media exposure regarding corporate corruption appear to influence companies’ anti-corruption disclosures. The authors also examine whether the level of press freedom in firms’ home countries affects disclosure and the impact of media exposure in different ways.

The authors use Transparency International’s 2012 ratings of anti-corruption disclosure by the 105 largest multinational firms in the world, press freedom assessments from the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders, and media exposure measures based on a search using the Dow Jones Factiva database. The authors assess relations using regression analysis controlling for other firm-specific factors potentially impacting disclosure choices. Finally, the authors consider the potential effect of other country-level factors.

The results indicate that media exposure, using either an existence or an extensiveness measure, is positively related to differences in sample companies’ anti-corruption disclosures. The authors also find that disclosure is more (less) extensive where home country press freedom is less (more) restricted and that reduced press freedom appears to reduce the impact of media exposure on the disclosure. The authors further document that press freedom levels explain more difference in anti-corruption disclosures than other country-level factors potentially influencing the practice.

Because the investigation is limited to very large international firms for a single year, the degree to which the findings apply to other companies and time periods cannot be assessed. Further, the authors cannot determine how the findings would hold using an alternative disclosure rating scheme. Finally, the authors do not assess whether differences in the source of media exposure impact the findings.

The findings suggest that, to the extent that improved anti-corruption disclosure reflects greater corporate attention to corruption issues, the media may be a powerful player in addressing this social ill. Unfortunately, the results also indicate that media efforts may not be sufficient to bring about change in locations where the freedom of the press is limited. Further, the results suggest that disclosure appears to be a function of exposure to social and political exposures, and the authors therefore question whether it will actually lead to improved corruption performance.

The study is the first to consider the impacts of media exposure and press freedom on corporate social disclosures.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the disclosure of information on the fight against corruption in the sustainability reports of Portuguese companies.

Anti-corruption disclosure in the sustainability reports for 2009 of Portuguese firms, published on the website of the Portugal’s Business Council for Sustainability Development, is analysed. Three hypotheses are tested about associations between such disclosure and firm-specific variables.

Companies with a high visibility in terms of risk of corruption (companies in sectors with higher risk and government-owned companies) and companies that engage in association with the United Nations Global Compact seem to exhibit greater concern to improve the corporate image through disclosure.

There may be content analysis issues associated with subjectivity in the coding process and the use of a limited content analysis method.

This paper adds to the scarce research on the fight against corruption in corporate social responsibility and the reporting thereof by providing new empirical data.

In recent years, the role of environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure has become crucial. The aim of this paper is to study how corporate governance affects one part of ESG disclosure: anti-corruption disclosure.

This study examined 140 corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports from companies listed on the Italian stock markets and 50 CSR reports from other companies, then this study analysed the adoption of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standard no. 205.

The results show a low level of disclosure, and that corporate governance issues matter. In particular, the analysis found a positive relationship between the presence of female and outside members, the number of board members and the level of anti-corruption disclosure.

This study acknowledges some limitations. Firstly, the research is based on a one-year sample. Secondly, the research hypotheses are confirmed only when considered in relation to a single section of the GRI standards. Thirdly, this study has a bias towards relatively large enterprises.

It could be worthwhile introducing a soft regulation regarding the composition of the board of directors that requires a certain quantitative and qualitative composition.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the few studies, the first in Italy, that sheds light on anti-corruption disclosure and its determinants.

This paper aims to explore the extent of anti-bribery disclosures in the annual reports of the banks listed on UAE financial markets by differentiating between Islamic and conventional banks and examine the effect of anti-bribery disclosure on bank’s performance.

This study uses in the first stage the content analysis to explore the extent of anti-bribery disclosure in the annual reports of the banks. In the second stage, the dynamic panel two-step robust system has been applied to study the impact of the anti-bribery disclosure on banking performance.

The empirical results show that the anti-bribery disclosure is at low levels for all banks and that there are no significant differences in overall anti-bribery disclosure between the two banking systems while there are significant differences in “anti-bribery human resources practices” between Islamic and conventional banks. The dynamic panel data results show that the association between the anti-bribery disclosure and the bank’s performance is not significant as this kind of information is not clearly disclosed in the annual reports of the banks.

The study suggests to the UAE central bank and financial markets regulators to design a framework of anti-corruption disclosure by considering the international anti-corruption regime as an effort to respond to the international development of the bribery practices.

Anti-bribery concerns all the banks over the world and this research is the first study that constructs an index to measure the anti-bribery disclosure and helps in providing the status of the banking industry in terms of anti-bribery disclosure within an emerging market in the objective to improve the transparency in combatting the bribery.

This study aims to investigate the content and determinants of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) anti-corruption disclosures (ACDs) of public-listed Indonesian companies using institutional and legitimacy theories.

A content analysis method is used to extract the anti-corruption information in the annual reports. This study uses 40 checklist items developed and used by prior studies to measure the extent of CSR ACD. Univariate and multivariate analyses are applied to examine the determinants of ACD.

The results show that the disclosure level of anti-corruption is considerably satisfactory at 44.9%. The whistle-blowing theme is the most frequently reported. Size of firm and industry type have significant effects on ACD. Surprisingly, the findings show that government ownership has a negative effect on ACD.

The study is limited to one year of observation and is therefore unable to capture changes in the level of disclosure due to policy changes. The results of this study help anti-corruption decision-makers by taking into account the company’s legitimacy and isomorphic factors when formulating ACD policies and efforts that could be made to promote greater disclosure of anti-corruption information.

This study contributes to the discourse of CSR by providing a more comprehensive extent and more determinants of ACD practice in an emerging country from the lens of legitimacy and institutional theories.

The growing international legal agenda and the fast development of corporate governance rules are now prompting firms to put emphasis on anti-corruption procedures. On the other hand, wide-ranging concerns have been raised by regulators and policymakers regarding the effectiveness of audit committees in promoting ethical behavior and safeguarding auditor independence from the adverse consequences of purchasing non-audit services. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the adoption of anti-corruption measures and perceived auditor independence in the context of audit committees.

After conducting the Breusch–Pagan Lagrange Multiplier test and the Hausman test, the random-effect model is used as the most appropriate estimator. Several endogeneity tests are also used to account for the endogenous nature of the corporate governance variables in the models.

Using a sample of UK FTSE 350 firms, this paper provides evidence that anti-corruption efforts are associated with lower purchases of non-audit services and lower economic bonding between auditors and their clients. Furthermore, the findings of this paper reveal that the adoption of anti-corruption efforts substitutes the role of audit committees in enhancing perceived auditor independence and that audit committees do not play a significant incremental role.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to focus on bolstering perceived auditor independence while enhancing the control and ethical environment from the clients’ side instead of the auditors’ side.

From 2000 to 2021, the Malaysian corruption perception index demonstrated a declining tendency, identifying Malaysia as a highly corrupt nation. Corruption in the nation has become a social cancer that has impacted the workplace and political climate. Using Dewey’s (1937) theory of education and social change, this paper argues that anti-corruption education is a tool for reforming the corruption culture of a nation. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to explore and understand the current anti-corruption education in Malaysian educational institutions.

The results of this study were derived from a qualitative content analysis of 20 Google News articles, an interview with the sole implementation agency, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and a literature assessment of MACC publications. Due to a dearth of preceding study and journal publications on the topic, this type of qualitative content analysis of news has been applied in prior studies.

The results indicate that anti-corruption education has been implemented in the primary, secondary and higher education institutions in Malaysia. Nonetheless, the concept and implementation are inadequate, superficial and insufficient. The analysis advises more inclusive techniques for delivering anti-corruption education for social transformation.

Prior research has focussed on laws and regulations to prosecute the corrupt, but has underrated the ability of education to alter the corruption culture. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first journal paper, written on anti-corruption education in Malaysia. This study sets the way for further anti-corruption education studies in the future. This line of research will provide insights for the nation’s policymaking, which aims to create a nation free of corruption and capable of sustaining itself.