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1. Introduction
Misconduct in business (hereafter, MIB) occurs during the exercise of a given profession, is intentional, usually defined, and regulated by the profession itself, and violating norms and expectations of a variety of stakeholders such as other professionals, clients and the general public (Neale, 1996; Muzio et al., 2016; Dixon-Woods et al., 2011). Given the widespread occurrence of MIB across industries and nations, MIB has become a significant topic of examination (Kish-Gephart et al., 2010; Muzio et al., 2016; Palmer, 2012; Vaughan, 1999). In line with previous calls to study MIB from a corruption perspective (De Graaf, 2007), this study proposes that if we are to understand the broader concept of corruption and its supply side, we must consider it in the narrower concept of MIB, derived from the deontological perspective to business ethics. We focus on the mining industry in particular.
More specifically, this study posits that MIB is a much under-explored notion to understand corruption and the supply side of corruption in international business. Corruption is commonly defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain (Transparency International, 2018). As such, corruption, and more specifically, bribery, is typically viewed and defined from the demand side. In contrast, MIB refers more directly to the supply side by illuminating the supplying component needed for corruption to occur. This component can be individuals, but in case of international business, it refers most commonly to multinational corporations (hereafter, MNCs). Corruption is an entry strategy in foreign markets (Rodriguez et al., 2005) but also a mean for continued presence (Luo, 2006; Duanmu, 2011). MIB is all the more relevant since there are often a great variety of professions working within a given MNC, from engineers to lawyers, architects to bankers. Executive boards exemplify this as chief executives are very often members of professional orders (e.g. chartered accountants, managers, engineers, or legal executives)[1]. As such, they are usually in charge of decision-making processes and thus negotiations with public officials offshore. This study posist MIB as a key concept to understand the supply side of corruption in international business because it challenges the widespread assumption in the literature (Petrou and Thanos, 2014; Cuervo-Cazurra, 2008) that governments are the instigators of corruption to which...