AND INSTITUTO TECNOLOGICO Y DE ESTUDIOS SUPERIORES DE MONTERREY This paper examines the impact of national wealth, income distribution, government size, and four cultural variables on the perceived level of corruption in a country. The study finds that corruption is significantly corre-(orruption has become a major issue Win the international press. Scandals have shaken governments in Belgium, Italy, Japan, and Spain. No country has been left untouched by its pernicious consequences. The search for the causes of corruption has led theorists to consider a broad array of economic, political, cultural, and psychological factors. Economic theories focus on the decision making of rational, self-interest-seeking individuals involved in corrupt transactions. Public choice (Rose-Ackerman, 1978), game theory (Macrae, 1982), and transaction-cost economics (Husted, 1994) have all made important contributions to the study of corruption. Some political scientists have embraced a lated to GNP per capita, power distance, masculinity, and uncertainty avoidance. Significant interaction effects occur in collectivistic and high powerdistance countries. Suggestions for future research are developed. more complex psychological profile of governmental officials by incorporating moral integrity into their analyses. Rogow and Lasswell (1963) have studied the personal lives of politicians and political bosses in the United States, and have developed a model of the psychological profile of the politician that relates unfulfilled childhood needs to corrupt behavior.

What is the relationship of global and local (country-specific) corporate social responsibility (CSR) to international organizational strategy? Applying the strategic logic of the Bartlett and Ghoshal typology to the realm of CSR, multinational firms should respond to pressures for integration and responsiveness from salient stakeholders. However, an institutional logic would suggest that multinational firms will simply replicate the existing product-market organizational strategy (multidomestic, transnational, global) in their management of CSR. These alternative approaches are tested with a survey instrument sent to MNEs operating in Mexico. The results of this study are consistent with the proposition that institutional pressures, rather than strategic analysis of social issues and stakeholders, are guiding decision-making with respect to CSR. We develop implications for MNE management and research, as well as public policy.

 This paper examines the situation of firms that have two objectives: profit maximization and social performance. By looking comparatively at the cases of altruism, coerced egoism, and strategy, this paper uses the tools of microeconomics to define the optimal level of social output that should be produced in each case. We show that it is wiser for the firm to act strategically than to be coerced into making investments in corporate social responsibility. In addition, we argue that greater overall social output will be achieved by the strategic approach, than by the altruistic approach.

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This paper investigates how corruption in the institutional environment influences firms' decisionsto obtain third-party certification to private management standards as signals of desirable conduct. We argue that policy-specific corruption erodes trust in government efforts to regulate firms' conduct, thus increasing the signaling value of private certifications and the likelihood of certification. However, widespread corruption in the general environment can extend distrust to private certification systems, which reduces the credibility and signaling value of private certifications, thus decreasing the likelihood that firms obtain certification. Our empirical results based on ISO 14001 environmental management system certification among 433 automotive plants in Mexico confirm these relationships. We discuss the implications of our findings for transaction cost economics, institutional theory, research, and practice.

The relationship of corporate social responsibility to risk management has been treated sporadically in the business and society literature. Using real options theory, I develop the notion of corporate social responsibility as a real option and its implications for risk management. Real options theory allows for a strategic view of corporate social responsibility. Specifically, real options theory suggests that corporate social responsibility should be negatively related to the firm's ex ante downside business risk.