Goffman's Return to Las Vegas: Studying Corruption as Social Interaction

In this paper, we argue that corruption research can benefit from studying corrupt transactions as a particular form of social interaction. We showcase the usefulness of a theoretical focus on social interaction by investigating online user reports on the website Frontdesktip.com. Through this focus...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics Vol. 151; no. 1; pp. 37 - 54
Main Authors: Schoeneborn, Dennis, Homberg, Fabian
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Dordrecht Springer 01.08.2018
Springer Netherlands
Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:
Bribery
Business and Management
Business Ethics
Corruption
Education
Ethics
Goffman, Erving (1922-1982)
Internet
Management
Philosophy
Quality of Life Research
Regression analysis
Social interaction
Studies
Transactions
Usefulness
United States > US
Las Vegas Nevada
Online media
Bribery
Corruption
Social interactions
Business ethics
Codes of conduct
ISSN:0167-4544, 1573-0697
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In this paper, we argue that corruption research can benefit from studying corrupt transactions as a particular form of social interaction. We showcase the usefulness of a theoretical focus on social interaction by investigating online user reports on the website Frontdesktip.com. Through this focus, we can observe users sharing experiences and tips on the best ways of bribing hotel clerks in Las Vegas for attaining room upgrades and other complimentary extras. We employ a logistic regression analysis to examine what factors influence the "successful" performance of this bribery practice. Our study makes a twofold contribution to existing research on corruption. First, on the theoretical level, we show that the typified and scripted character of social interactions can help explain the occurrence of corrupt transactions. Second, on a methodological level, our study showcases online self-reports as a useful data source to study corrupt transactions in an unobtrusive way.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1007/s10551-016-3245-0