Normalized Collective Corruption in a Transitional Economy: Small Treasuries in Large Chinese Enterprises

“Small treasuries” (xiaojinku) are off-book accounts found in many large enterprises in China for the purpose of rewarding managers and their subordinates, building up guanxi (personal networks), and even financing the business operations of their danwei (work units). We analyze CESTs with reference...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hung, Humphry (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer 2008
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2008, Volume: 79, Issue: 1, Pages: 69-83
Further subjects:B Corruption
B small treasuries
B Guanxi
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Summary:“Small treasuries” (xiaojinku) are off-book accounts found in many large enterprises in China for the purpose of rewarding managers and their subordinates, building up guanxi (personal networks), and even financing the business operations of their danwei (work units). We analyze CESTs with reference to their antecedents, constructs, and consequences. Our analysis indicates that while CESTs can, in some cases, help organizations deal with immediate financial problems, they have negative impacts on organizational performance in relation to the moral hazard of managers, as well as the allocation of organizational resources, in respect of sustainability of strategic advantages and growth, and mismanagement of organizations. Because of the involutionary behavior of managers in Chinese enterprises, we propose that it will require not only organizational controls, but also a fundamental change in these managers’ ideology for solving the problems of CESTs.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-007-9396-2