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Journal of Business Ethics (2008) 80:437445 Springer 2007 DOI 10.1007/s10551-007-9429-x
Perception of Business Bribery in China: the Impact of Moral Philosophy Qing Tian
ABSTRACT. This paper examines the impact of Chinese business managers moral philosophies on the perception of corrupt payments such as bribery, kickbacks and gift giving. Business managers from Mainland China were selected as target respondents. As hypothesized the survey results generally indicate that moral relativism is a significant predictor of Chinese business managers favorable perception of bribery and kickbacks. In examining the attitude toward gift giving, the survey showed that an individuals attitude toward gift giving was neither affected by their moral relativism nor by their moral idealism, which implies that gift giving is widely accepted as legal practice in business in Chinese cultural society.
KEY WORDS: bribery, corruption, China, gift giving, kickbacks, moral philosophy
Introduction
Business ethics has received an extensive research attention. No one can underestimate or ignore the importance of how businessmen perceive unethical business behavior. However, scholars have been far less interested in exploring the determinants of ethical attitudes toward bribery, gifts giving, and kick-backs. Most of the studies on ethical issues are done at a macro level from cultural and economic perspectives. An approach that emphasizes individual-level values, i.e. individual moral philosophies, is relatively rare. This study explores the inuence of individuals moral philosophies on Chinese ethical thoughts and views and assesses the relationship between individual moral philosophies of Chinese businessmen and their perception of questionable
business activities, i.e. bribery, gift giving and kick-backs.
As China changes, the nature of bribery changes. Many bribers are now offering ofcials not only money, expensive home appliances, or jewelry, but also stock shares, cars, houses, overseas travels and even sexual service. According to the media disclosure of China, commercial bribes in engineering projects, land acquisition, property trading, medicine purchase, and government procurement deserve special attention. China has started to tighten the punishment for offering or accepting bribes. Since the implementation of the revised Criminal Law in 1997, bribery criminals have been subjected to ve years in prison for light infringement and up to life imprisonment for severe illegal acts
This issue is not only important in China, but also in other countries. Some countries and regions in Asia are deeply...