Curbing Bribe-Giving in Malaysia: The Role of Attitudes and Parents

Abstract

One of the main challenges developing nations face is curbing bribery. While there are many efforts to curb bribery, most focused at macro level, such as law, while little has been examined at the micro level, e.g., individual behavior and intention. Those who did investigate at the micro level tend to focus on the recipients rather than the ones giving the bribe. We explored eight factors that influence Malaysian young adults’ bribe giving intention based on the Reasoned Action Approach (RAA). A total of 345 respondents (M_age = 20.68, SD = 2.01, 189 are females) completed questionnaires about all RAA variables. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was carried out using smartPLS3.0 to analyze the result. The result revealed that out of the eight variables, four variables—Instrumental attitudes, Experiential Attitudes, Parents’ descriptive norms and Capacity—explain 74% of the variance in bribe giving intention. An important take-away is that young adult’s perception of whether their parents gave or did not give bribes in a given situation is important in influencing their bribe giving intention. Bribe giving prevention messages must be targeted explicitly toward parents, where they play a crucial role in curbing this dishonesty.

Keywords:

• Attitudes
• bribe-giving
• corruption
• dishonesty
• parents
• young adult

Acknowledgments

We would like to extend appreciation toward Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for the input while planning for this research. Special thanks to Professor T. Ramayah for advice on the PLS-SEM method. The research team would like to thank all the research assistants for their assistance in one way or another in completing this research. They are: Syahrul Zharif bin Saidina Othman, Kovithaa Selvam, Aisyah Mohd Farid, Tan Lee Shee, Nava Waheed, Che Wan Danish Hilman Bin Che Wan Khairul Anuar, Amanda See Pei Yee, Yungqi Khoo, Bilvashri Seyon, and Mariyam Aroofa Arif.

Ethical approval

This research received approval from the University’s Ethics Committee.

Author contributions

Lim Mengzhen: project administration, writing—original draft, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, and investigation. Yongchy Sin: writing—review and editing. Wan Munira Wan Jaafar, Azlina Mohd Khir, Hanina H. Hamsan, and Min Hooi Yong: supervision and conceptualization. Shin Ling Wu, Pei Boon Ooi, Derek Lai Teik Ong, and Chu Sun Ong: software and formal analysis.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This research was self-funded by the principal investigator.