Title: White-collar crime effects on corporate reputation

Authors: Petter Gottschalk

Addresses: BI Norwegian Business School, Nydalsveien 37, 0484 Oslo, Norway

Abstract: Corporate reputation is an intangible resource that influences stakeholder behaviour. White-collar crime is typically financial crime committed by trusted persons in legitimate business organisations, either as occupational or corporate crime. This paper presents results from a survey of chief financial officers where effects of white-collar crime on corporate reputation were explored. Survey results indicate a contingent perspective, where white-collar crime is considered more serious for company reputation if crime reflects company culture, if the company is an offender rather than a victim, if it has happened in the company before, if the crime is considered very serious, if the company rather than an individual is considered to be the criminal, if the company is in service rather than goods production, and if local and national media finds it interesting and relevant to report the case for a long time. This paper reports exploratory research based on an open question in the survey instrument.

Keywords: white collar criminals; corporate reputation; survey research; rotten apples; victims; enterprise development; stakeholder behaviour; financial crime; white collar crime.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMED.2013.054522

International Journal of Management and Enterprise Development, 2013 Vol.12 No.3, pp.263 - 275

Published online: 26 Jul 2014 *

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