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European Journal of Economic and Financial Research ISSN: 2501-9430 ISSN-L: 2501-9430 Available on-line at: http://www.oapub.org/soc Volume 2 │ Issue 4 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.1009167 ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS: MILLENNIAL VIEWS ON BRIBERY AND CONDUCTING BUSINESS IN EMERGING MARKETS Jet Mbogai The University of Bolton, Bolton Business School: Fulfillment of PhD, Deane Road, Bolton, BL3 5AB, UK Abstract: Corruption is the core component that acts as a barrier for social and economic development in emerging markets. The examination of ethics within organizations that have entered emerging global platforms is essential to bring forth evidence of ways organizations are conducting in emerging markets. Research shows that organizations dress up the illegal bribes as the cost of conducting business; are these costs in violation of United States Laws? The secondary research examined if the desire of foreign exposure contributed to organizations involvement in unethical ways to capitalization on the rapid growth to remain sustainable. JEL: D73, D23, F13, D23, D83, G38, K23, M14, M16, A13 Keywords: organizational ethics, bribery, emerging markets 1. Introduction Long are the days when organizations were totally dependent on their respective home country economy to increase their profits; today organizations broaden their horizons and have avenues to earn sturdier profits by tapping into emerging markets (Newman, 2011; Taylor, 2015). Corruption hinders social and economic development in emerging markets (Aaeshi, Rajwani & Adegbite, 2015); there is evidence of economic growth and employees, leaders, and investors who overlook the unethical practices of fraud and corruption for sake of attaining higher growth return on their business prospective Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 77 Jet Mboga ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS: MILLENNIAL VIEWS ON BRIBERY AND CONDUCTING BUSINESS IN EMERGING MARKETS (Newman, 2013; Turner, 2013). Evidence shows that as the organizations pursue emerging markets; bribery in the form of kickbacks, handing over cash, paying facilitation fees or other means to get favors; these actions have become rampant with both the organizations offering and the emerging markets taking or asking; notorious nations such as China that 80th in the Transparency international and others as shown in Appendix A (Selko, 2013; Transparency International; 2016; Winograd, 2013). The recipe for corruption is noted concisely by Shepard (2016) who shared that when individuals are poor they have bad institutions and with bad institutions there exist poor individuals; this is evident in the emerging markets as shared by Bloomsburg to include China; South Korea; Thailand; Peru; Czech Republic; Malaysia; Turkey; Chile; Russia; Indonesia; Columbia; Poland; Namibia; Zambia; South Africa; Mexico; Brazil; Hungary; Morocco; and Philippines (See Appendix B) (Bloomsburg, 2013; Shepard, 2016). Shepard (2016) shared that corruption has become the recipe for emerging markets; clearly the emerging markets transparency is wretched with cases such as prime minister of Malaysia involvement in missing funds to Brazils gigantic corruption scandal termed as operation car wash and as reported by C”S News the involvement of 39 federal deputies; 24 senators; 3 state governors; one federal court minister; more than third of the senate; and 23 individuals from municipal, state, and federal levels (Banerji, 2017; Holodny, 2017; Long, 2017). The scoring for transparency in emerging markets remains low with a documentation by Transparency International (2017) that of the assessed multinational markets don’t have practices that disclose or prohibit bribes even in the form of facilitation payments and organizations don’t have procedures for employees to report unethical conduct pertaining accepting or giving bribes (Chonghaile, 2016). Such incidents continue even in nations with policies that prohibit bribes; in the case of U.S. organizations, as they expand into global platforms they are aware of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA); a law enacted in 1977 banned American companies from paying any form of bribes to government foreign officials in efforts to gain or retain business in the respective country (U.S. Department of Justice, 2016). Emerging markets have become attractive with multiple U.S. organizations now conducting business in foreign markets; foreign sales as reported by S&P 500 accounted for 47.82% in 2014; 46.29% in 2013; and 46% in each year from 2009 to 2012 (Silverblatt, 2014). In comparison, the growth in global platforms by big multinational U.S. firms confirmed by the 40% profit reported in the S&P 500 stock index from emerging markets such as Latin American, India, and China (Newman, 2011). Alternatively, another source confirms a 33% aggregate revenue in 2014 from S&P 500 from foreign sales; with 12% revenue from Middle East, Africa, and Europe (Ro, 2015). European Journal of Economic and Financial Research - Volume 2 │ Issue 4 │ 2017 78 Jet Mboga ORGANIZATIONAL ETHICS: MILLENNIAL VIEWS ON BRIBERY AND CONDUCTING BUSINESS IN EMERGING MARKETS The US firms with foreign sales include Walmart with Total revenue of $420 billion of which 26% was directly from 5, 000 stores operating in 14 foreign countries, Exxon-Mobil revenue of $342 billion with 45% from overseas operations, and General Electric’s $ ”illion in revenue with % from overseas operations Newman, . In addition, other US firms such as Fords with 51% of its $129 billion revenue came from overseas; I”M’s $ billion in revenue with overseas operation at $ % from overseas; Nike’s revenue of $ billion revenue had %; “mazon’s billion with % from overseas; and McDonalds $24 billion of which 66% overseas stores focused on fitting into local culture in Europe and Asia (Newman, 2011). Other additional U.S firms with revenue from overseas include McKesson’s $ billion; $ billion’s revenue; % from $ billion; and % from ”ank of “merica’s $ billion; % from I”M’s $ billion; % from Dow Chemical’s $ % from Marriot’s $ billion; % from % from ”oeing’s $ billion; billion in revenue Newman, % from Intel’s . In comparison to foreign sales documented in 2011, the top organizations in the United States in 2016 according to Fortune 500 reported top $12 trillion revenues of which $840 billion in profits, $17 trillion of market value, and a total sum of 27.9 million worldwide employees. The top five organizations included Walmart’s $ ExxonMobil’s $ . billion; “pple’s $ billion; and McKesson’s $ . billion . billion; ”erkshire Hathaway’s $ Fortune organizations included UnitedHealth Group’s $ billion; General Motor’s $ . billion; , . . The following five . billion; CVS Health’s $ . . billion; Ford Motor’s $ . billion; and “T&T’s $ . billion in revenues (Fortune 500, 2016). In contrast, Newman (2011) reported that some U.S. firms such as United Health Group with $94 billion in revenue are solely dependent on the United States sales; while majority of U.S. organizations seek to capitalize on emerging markets. Research on secondary documentation to review and analyze organizations that conduct business in emerging markets to sought out evidence of unethical conduct by such organizations. Primary research was conducted on a sample of millennial participants; insights on the unethical conduct would broaden the existing research on the importance of ethics in our societies and global platforms. For viewing / downloading the full article, please access the following link: https://oapub.org/soc/index.php/EJEFR/article/view/221 European Journal of Economic and Financial Research - Volume 2 │ Issue 4 │ 2017 79