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This chapter examines the external validity of lab experiments on corruption by evaluating the extent to which experimental results are robust to the degree of field context included in the experimental design. To do so, we follow Harrison and List (2004) and partition corruption experiments into four classes depending on their field context. A comparison of the results obtained within each class reveals that similar treatment effects tend to emerge. Although a definitive answer to the external validity question has yet to be provided, these preliminary results provide some support to the external validity of lab experiments on corruption.

The nature and amount of data that public organizations have to monitor to counteract corruption lead to a phenomenon called “KPI overload”, consisting of the business analyst feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information and resulting in the absence of appropriate control. The purpose of this study is to develop a solution based on Artificial Intelligence technology to avoid data overloading and, at the same time, under-controlling in business process monitoring.

The authors adopted a design science research approach. The authors started by observing a specific problem in a real context (a healthcare organization); then conceptualized, designed and implemented a solution to the problem with the goal to develop knowledge that can be used to design solutions for similar problems. The proposed solution for business process monitoring integrates databases and self-service business intelligence for outlier detection and artificial intelligence for classification analysis.

The authors found the solution powerful to solve problems related to KPI overload in process monitoring. In the specific case study, the authors found that the combination of Business Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence can provide a significant contribution to the detection of fraud, corruption and/or policy misalignment in public organizations.

The authors provide a big-data-based solution to the problem of data overload in business process monitoring that does not sacrifice any monitored Key Performance Indicators and that also reduces the workload of the business analyst. The authors also developed and implemented this automated solution in a context where data sensitivity and privacy are critical issues.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of information technology in reducing corruption in China. Meanwhile this paper explores whether electronic monitoring systems (EMS) can be evaluated in terms of the DeLone and McLean information systems (IS) success model.

The status of the EMS in five cities is first proposed, and then a model of e-government system success is designed to evaluate the EMS. Data are obtained from 387 civil servants in the supervision agencies. Then the effectiveness of EMS in reducing corruption is deeply assessed, and the DeLone and McLean IS success model is validated.

The findings show that the application of EMS has a positive effect on reducing corruption. IT thus has the potential to reduce corruption, but the institution and the people are more important.

Although many theories about reducing corruption have been proposed, the EMS application in reducing corruption has seldom been addressed. This study is the first, to the author's knowledge, to examine EMS and corruption reduction from the point of view of the IS success model.

In observational data, access to information is associated with lower levels of corruption. This chapter reviews a small but growing body of work that uses field experiments to explore the mechanisms behind this relationship. We present a typology for understanding this research based on the type of corruption being addressed (political vs. bureaucratic), the mechanism for accountability (retrospective vs. prospective), and the nature of the information provided (factual vs. prescriptive). We describe some of the tradeoffs involved in design decisions for such experiments and suggest directions for future research.

Corruption is a serious problem in Southeast Asian countries. Based on the average ranking of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, Malaysia is ranked as the second least corrupt country among Southeast Asian countries. However, this country is still facing problems in its fight against corruption, in which efforts undertaken to prevent corruption have been said to be “unsatisfactory.” The purpose of this paper is hence to examine previous literature for the possible factors affecting the success of anti-corruption efforts in Malaysia.

This study analyzes previous studies conducted on Malaysia’s experiences in its fight against corruption.

The findings of this paper indicate four attributes that lead to the failure of anti-corruption efforts in Malaysia.

This paper will be useful for scholars, policymakers and anti-corruption practitioners who are interested in Malaysia’s experiences in fighting corruption.

Goal 16 of the SDGs concerns ‘Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions’. Specifically, Goal 16 states ‘Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels’. Among the targets of this goal (Target 16.5) is to ‘Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all their forms’. Undoubtedly, the recognition and inclusion of corruption and bribery among other relevant governance aspects is laudable and necessary. This chapter examines and analyses the relationship between corruption and sustainable development, assesses regional performance through the indicators for achieving Target 16.5 of the Sustainable Development Goals and proposes other indicators and policy frameworks for improved performance toward substantially reducing corruption and bribery in all their forms.

This analysis examines the relationship between corruption and firm productivity in Vietnam.

The authors apply the system generalized method of moments estimation approach on a panel dataset constructed from comprehensive enterprise surveys covering all the sectors over the 2011–2020 period.

The results confirm a non-linear relationship between corruption and firm productivity. Where corruption is severe, leaving corruption alone tends to benefit firm productivity because efforts to control corruption are likely to cause greater delays. In less corrupt provinces, corruption appears to harm firm productivity while efforts to control corruption provide significant productivity gains. This U-shaped relationship is confirmed for small firms and those in the private sector sub-samples. Intriguingly, this study reveals that the U-shaped relationship does not apply to micro, medium, large firms, state-owned firms and foreign-invested firms because corruption is found to have no significant impact on productivity among these sub-samples. Changes in regulations after 2014 toward promoting a transparent business environment are shown to foster the positive impact of lowering corruption on firm productivity.

This study suggests that lowering corruption is beneficial for firm productivity at the micro level. However, where corruption is severe, monitoring corruption alone is likely to cause adverse effects on productivity due to increased bureaucratic delays. Institutional reforms might play an important role in leveraging the effects of lowering corruption on productivity in highly corrupt areas.

This paper sheds new light on the relationship between corruption and firm productivity in the broad existing literature and especially in the limited number of studies for Vietnam.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the anti-corruption campaign, “Hunting the Tigers,” incurs a significant short-term loss of shareholders’ returns.

A sophisticated event study approach is employed.

The results show that the “Hunting the Tigers” has incurred a significant short-term loss of investment returns for shareholders in China’s main stock market board. In addition, the beginning of a new assault on China’s official mogul corruption in another round of political anti-corruption cycle after the 18th National Congress of the CPC has reduced this price significantly.

This finding should be perceived as the price of the corruption of official-business collusion within capital markets in contemporary China.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a description of the state of corruption in Serbia, based on available empirical evidence produced by the penal law‐enforcement agencies themselves.

The paper uses an analysis of available documents, criminal cases of the Municipal Court of Belgrade, data from the Public Prosecution Office and the National Statistical Bureau. Given the scarcity of research in Serbia, the usual inaccessibility of judicial sources, the study is a first reconnaissance based on what is available at present.

The basic finding is a huge gap between what the people experience about corruption and what is eventually prosecuted. The law‐enforcement agencies address this phenomenon haphazardly and in a fragmented manner, displaying a fundamental lack of data management, resulting in lack of transparency.

Research in such a sensitive area and within a political culture of opacity, addressing incomplete data, will in its first stage yield limited results. The project will be continued with additional interviews with knowledgeable people, extension of the statistics and validation and comparison of other anti‐corruption bodies as far as they have a measurable output.

The short‐term practical implication is that researchers “got over the threshold” and entered the law enforcement “chambers”. Practical applications concern the contribution to transparency, which is required for doing research and impacts on the way the practitioners address their own practice.

The paper addresses a certain field in a country that has so far been only scantly researched.

This paper aims to document whether firms with audited financial statements pay lower bribes to get contracts than firms without audited financial statements. In other words, this study assesses whether external auditing helps combat corruption.

The World Bank Enterprise Survey data covering the period between 2006 and 2014 is used. The total sample comprised more than 50,000 firms in 126 countries.

This paper finds that firms with audited financial statements pay significantly lower bribes compared to firms with unaudited financial statements. The results are robust across various estimation procedures, various proxies for bribery and various sub-samples. It is also found that the relationship between audited financial statements and bribery is more pronounced in environments where firms face higher pressure to engage in corrupt practices.

The results imply that auditing of financial statements can act as a disciplining device to curb bribery in environments that encourage corruption.

This paper is the first attempt, according to the authors’ knowledge, to examine the relationship between external auditing and corruption using firm-level data that cover 126 countries and is gathered over a 14-year period. Therefore, the results derived from this study are generalizable.