Authors
Shakenya Johnson, Michelle Zorn
Publication date
2018/7/2
Journal
Academy of Management Proceedings
Volume
2018
Issue
1
Pages
17979
Publisher
Academy of Management
Description
Organizational research has long examined the antecedents and consequences of corporate wrongdoing, revealing a number of interesting findings. Yet, we know little about why firms continue to engage in wrongdoing on a repeated basis – a concept we introduce as corporate recidivism. We utilize theory of behavioral conditioning from psychology to obtain a better understanding of the drivers of corporate recidivism. Our results suggest that when firms receive benefits following an initial instance of wrongdoing, they learn that wrongdoing is acceptable and are not deterred from future wrongdoing. We conclude with a discussion of implications for the literature and future research directions.
Scholar articles
S Johnson, M Zorn - Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018