【分析解答题】

It is 15 years since Moises Naim coined the memoraible phrase "corruption eruption".But there is no sign of the eruption dying down. Indeed, there is so much molten lava and sulphurous ash around that some of the world’s biggest companies have been covered in it. Siemens andDaimler have recently been forced to pay gargantuan fines.BHPBilliton has admitted that it may have been involved in bribery.America’sDepartment of Justice is investigating some 150 companies, targeting oil and drugs firms in particular.

The ethical case against corruption is too obvious to need spelling out.But many companies still believe that, in this respect at least, there is a regrettable tension between the dictates of ethics and the logic of business.Bribery is the price that you must pay to enter some of the world’s most difficult markets (the "when in Rome" argument).Bribery can also speed up the otherwise glacial pace of bureaucracy (the "efficient grease" hypothesis).And why not The chances of being caught are small while the rewards can be big and immediate.
But do you really have to behave like a Roman to thrive in Rome Philip Nichols, of the Wharton School, points out that plenty of Western firms have prospered in emerging markets without getting their hands dirty, including Reebok, Google and Novo Nor disk. IKE
A、has gone to great lengths to fight corruption in Russi
A、What is more, Mr Nichols argues, it is misguided to dismiss entire countries as corrupt.Even the greasiest-palmed places are in fact ambivalent about corruption: they invariably have laws against it and frequently produce politicians who campaign against it. Multinationals should help bolster the rules of the game rather than pandering to the most unscrupulous players.
And is "grease" really all that efficient In a paper published by the WorldBank, the authors subjected the "efficient grease" hypothesis to careful scrutiny. They found that companies that pay bribes actually end up spending more time negotiating with bureaucrats. The prospect of a pay-off gives officials an incentive to haggle over regulations. The paper also found that borrowing is more expensive for corrupt companies.
The hidden costs of corruption are almost always much higher than companies imagine.Corruption inevitably begets ever more corruption.Corruption also exacts a high psychological cost on those who engage in it. Mr Nichols says that corrupt business people habitually compare their habit to having an affair: no sooner have you given in to temptation than you are trapped in a world of secrecy and guilt. On the other hand, the benefits of rectitude can be striking. Oil giant Texaco had such an incorruptible reputation thatAfrican border guards were said to wave its jeeps through without engaging in the ritual shakedown. Moreover, the likelihood of being caught is dramatically higher than it was a few years ago. The internet has handed much more power to whistle-blowers.Every year Transparency International publishes itsCorruption Perceptions Index, and its GlobalCorruptionBarometer.
The likelihood of prosecution is also growing. The Obama administration has revamped the ForeignCorrupt PracticesAct (FCPA、and is using it to pursue corporate malefactors the world over. TheDepartment of Justice is pursuing far more cases than it ever has before. Recent legislation has made senior managers personally liable for corruption on their watch. They risk a spell in prison as well as huge fines. The vagueness of the legislation means that the authorities may prosecute for lavish entertainment as well as more blatant bribes.
America is no longer a lone ranger. Thirty-eight countries have now signed up to the OECD’s 1997 anti-corruption convention, leading to a spate of cross-border prosecutions. In FebruaryBritain’sBAE、Systems, a giant arms company, was fined $ 400m as a result of a jointBritish andAmerican investigation. Since then a more f