Does it matter where you bribe? MNE bribery, social norms and legitimacy

Purpose This study examines the relationship between revelations of bribery by multinational enterprises (MNEs) in foreign markets and negative social media coverage of these firms. Drawing on neoinstitutional theory and social norms research, it predicts that negative social media reactions to corruption revelations will be moderated by host country corruption levels. Design/methodology/approach This study uses corruption data from 168 MNEs charged under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and approximately 1 million tweets related to these firms' corrupt activities in over 80 countries. Findings We find significant negative social media reactions to corruption revelations in the host country, the sanctioning country and globally. Social media reactions were weaker when bribery took place in highly corrupt countries. Originality/value This study takes a novel approach to researching the potential risks of engaging in corrupt activities by leveraging multi-country social media data from Twitter/X.