National culture, corporate governance and corruption: A cross-country analysis

Abstract

Drawing on institutional theory, we examine the impact of corporate governance (CG) on corruption. The interaction effects of national culture and CG on corruption are also examined. By employing a dataset of 149 countries, our baseline findings indicate that the quality of CG practices reduces the level of corruption. Findings also show that three cultural dimensions, namely, power distance, individualism and indulgence moderate the CG-corruption nexus. Our findings indicate that CG and national culture explain the level of corruption among societies, with national culture appearing to matter more than the quality of CG. Our findings remain unchanged after controlling for endogeneities, country-level factors, CG and corruption proxies.