Variations in family and non-family firms’ formal anti-corruption implementation: A configurational perspective

Combatting corporate corruption is a fundamental prerequisite for firms’ effective management of environmental, social, and governance issues and responsibilities, making it crucial to identify key drivers of anti-corruption implementation in various types and sizes of firms. To date, however, most research has focused primarily on identifying single determining factors to explain variations in anti-corruption implementation, such as the role of family versus non-family ownership, yielding ambiguous results. Our study addresses this shortcoming by highlighting the interconnectedness of multiple factors driving such variations among family and non-family firms, zooming in especially on the role of inside-out (i.e., moral courage, as well as firm size and age) and outside-in (i.e., reputational risk) organizational conditions. Applying qualitative comparative methods to analyze data from 72 diverse firms operating in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, we synthesize three configurational patterns. Key insights include our finding that moral courage is an important driver of formal anti-corruption (AC) implementation only in the context of larger family firms. We also find that patterns of family firms and non-family firms only marginally overlap, further underscoring the differences between these two organizational forms. Our research has important practical and theoretical implications for family firms, anti-corruption policy, and related research.