Seizing the Ethical High Ground: Ethical Reputation Building in Corrupt Environments

We study the antecedents and outcomes of ethical reputation building in environments where corruption is widespread. We conduct two in-depth studies of firms in India and Zimbabwe that chose to resist corruption and survived for extended time periods. We show that founder characteristics, industry characteristics, the nature of corruption resisted, and membership of a social group (religion in this case) are important antecedents of the speed and extent of ethical reputation building. These antecedents also influence the pattern of resource commitments that the focal firms are able to enjoy as a result of having built ethical reputations.