This study extends the research on corporate financial fraud by developing a new perspective on the deterrence effects of vicarious punishments premised on social learning theory. We posit that firms vicariously learn about punishments from their peers by picking up modeling cues, environmental cues, and social cues in the inhibitive learning process, thus being deterred from committing future fraudulence. Using a matched sample of 604 observations of Chinese listed firms between 2002 and 2008, our findings show that an observing firm is deterred from committing fraud if the peers in its industry are caught and punished. We further find that such deterrence effects are subject to how the observing firm evaluates the possibility of being caught and the likelihood it will be punished the same way if it violates similar prohibitions. In particular, inhibitive learning effects are positively moderated by punishments of prominent firms and model–observer similarity but negatively attenuated by the development of the legal system. Our study sheds light on the corporate fraud literature by illuminating the indirect, inhibitive learning process from vicarious punishments and identifying the conditions for differential learning/deterrence outcomes of the observing firms.
How corporate governance mechanisms function in transition economies is a key topic for corporate governance researchers and policy makers. We propose that alternative governance mechanisms are in place to mitigate corporate fraudulent behaviors in the fluid state of transition economies where the establishment and enforcement of corporate governance legislation are presently insufficient. Drawing on the twin set of institutional logics—the institutional embeddedness logic and the institutional substitution logic—we posit that three salient types of prevailing alternative governance mechanisms (relational, administrative, and foreign governance) play important roles in transition economies because they are complementary to the institutional conditions at the time of the transition process. Conducting a bivariate probit analysis of a matched sample of corporate financial fraud cases in China, we find that strategic alliances, business group affiliation, nontradable state shares, local government ownership, use of foreign auditors, and foreign listing can deter corporate financial fraud, while foreign listing is also effective in detecting fraud. We also find that the deterrence effects of strategic alliances and business group affiliation become weaker as law development improves, while foreign listing and legal governance are completely substitutive. Our study provides a contextualized view of corporate governance that connects its effectiveness with institutionalization and the institutional state of a country. Our study also enriches our understanding of some unfamiliar forms of governance mechanisms that are in place and complementary to a country’s institutional conditions.
Significant alterations of serum TH1 and TH2 cytokines are associated with glaucoma, suggesting the possibility that abnormal immune environments contribute to the glaucomatous neuropathy of POAG.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.