Corporate disclosures on curbing foreign bribery and the UK Bribery Act 2012: Evidence from UK companies

摘要

This study aims to investigate whether and how United Kingdom (UK)-based companies have changed their disclosures on curbing foreign bribery in response to the UK Bribery Act 2010 and whether such disclosure changes substantively reflect real allegations or incidents of foreign bribery. Along with provisions embedded within the UK Bribery Act, international guidelines on the elimination of foreign bribery suggested by the Transparency International form the basis of the disclosure index used to measure the disclosures on elimination of foreign bribery by the Top 100 London-listed companies between 2009 and 2012. Results show a significant change in disclosure from before the enactment of the UK Bribery Act to after, consistent with notions of institutional coercive isomorphism. On in-depth examination of news media articles and corporate reports, it is revealed that there is a high level of decoupling with some sample companies, whilst others disclose information but not substantive enough to reflect real events. Such research is imperative as this is the first known study that provides evidence of the actions companies have taken in response to the UK Bribery Act.