Políticas contra la corrupción y el soborno: ¿se involucran de manera similar los consejeros en diferentes entornos corporativos?

This paper has a twofold objective: firstly, to analyze the role played by the composition of the board concerning the independence and diversity of its members on the implementation and level of scope of policies against corruption and bribery; and secondly, to detect whether the corporate governance system moderates the level of involvement of this body in ethical issues.

Previous empirical evidence for the new responsibilities of this monitoring body is limited, and deals with cross-sectional analysis at country level and a time period, thereby limiting the conclusions that can be derived. In this article, the analysis is performed for a panel data sample of 760 listed companies from 12 countries for the years 2003-2009.

The results obtained show that large companies with large-sized, independent and diverse boards are the most active in ethical issues. It also detects that the level of involvement of the directors is determined by the level of shareholder orientation characteristic of the corporate governance system of each country of origin of corporations.