Differences in attitudes about fraud and corruption across cultures : Theory, examples and recommendations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine differences in managers' and employees' attitudes about fraud across different cultures, provide some theories as to why these differences exist, give some recent examples of cultural differences in ethical perceptions from practice, make recommendations as to how companies can address this issue and make improvements to their anti‐fraud programs based on the country and culture in which they operate, and suggest some opportunities for future research. Design/methodology/approach – The paper takes the form of a literature review. Findings – A great deal of future research is needed to examine the effects of culture on the critical elements of managements' antifraud programs and controls that may be most effective in combating corruption, including the whistleblower hotline, internal audit, surprise audits, management review of internal controls, rewards for whistleblowers, and mandatory job rotation. Originality/value – This is one of the first papers reviewing the literature on cross‐cultural fraud and identifying opportunities for future research.