Share:


Empirical study toward corporate legal compliance and anti-corruption for top construction engineering consulting firms

    Jieh-Haur Chen Affiliation
    ; Tien-Sheng Chou Affiliation
    ; Jui-Pin Wang Affiliation
    ; Qin Rui Wong Affiliation

Abstract

Enhancing legal compliance towards corporate anti-corruption has become a tendency to assure corporate operation sustainable. Corruption that jeopardizes construction supervision, project management, operation maintenance remains a governance challenge in public construction and procurement. The research purpose is to explore the impact factors for anti-corruption legal compliance towards top 5 engineering consulting companies in the Taiwan construction industry. A comprehensive literature review brings 8 hypotheses based on the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) involving 28 stems for a 5-scale Likert questionnaire. The pilot survey with 22 effective returns demonstrates the validation for the questionnaire. The comprehensive survey collects 314 valid returns from top engineering consulting firms and proves that 5 out of 8 hypotheses stand. The findings conclude the legal compliance framework and top 5 impact factors: commitment, ethical management policy, organization and responsibility, prevention programs, and legal compliance policy. The contributions lie on (1) the identification and ranking for the impact factors, and (2) establishment of legal compliance framework toward corporate legal compliance and anti-corruption for top engineering consulting firms in the Taiwan construction industry. The legal compliance framework is correspondingly built to present how engineering consulting companies carry out anti-corruption legal compliance to assure corporate operation sustainable.

Keyword : legal compliance, corporate anti-corruption, engineering consulting company, construction industry, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), firewall setup

How to Cite
Chen, J.-H., Chou, T.-S., Wang, J.-P., & Wong, Q. R. (2024). Empirical study toward corporate legal compliance and anti-corruption for top construction engineering consulting firms. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 30(2), 168–181. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2024.19554
Published in Issue
Feb 22, 2024
Abstract Views
890
PDF Downloads
498
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

References

Arnold, D. H., Arnold, K., & Arnold, V. J. (2010). Managing ethical risks and crises: Beyond legal compliance. Beijing Law Review, 1(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.4236/blr.2010.11001

Bird, R. C., & Orozco, D. (2014). Finding the right corporate legal strategy. MIT Sloan Management Review, 56(1), Article 81.

Chang, M., & Lim, Y. L. (2016). Late disclosure of insider trades: Who does it and why?. Journal of Business Ethics, 133(3), 519–531. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2413-3

Chen, S. J., Zhang, J. A., Gao, H. Z., Yang, Z. L., & Mather, D. (2020). Trust erosion during industry-wide crises: The central role of consumer legitimacy judgement. Journal of Business Ethics, 175(1), 95–116. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04588-0

Chen, J.-H., Chou, T.-S., Wang, J.-P., Wei, H.-H., & Yang, T.-H. (2021). Sustainable corporate governance: The impact factors for top consulting engineering companies in Taiwan. Sustainability, 13(14), Article 7604. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147604

D’Avanzo, E., Franch, M., & Borgonovi, E. (2021). Ethics and sustainable management: An empirical modelling of Carroll’s pyramid for the Italian landscape. Sustainability, 13(21), Article 12057. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132112057

Durdyev, S., Ihtiyar, A., Banaitis, A., & Thurnell, D. (2018). The construction client satisfaction model: A PLS-SEM approach. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 24(1), 31–42. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2018.297

Ermongkonchai, P. (2010). Understanding reasons for employee unethical conduct in Thai organizations: A qualitative inquiry. Contemporary Management Research, 6(2), 125–140. https://doi.org/10.7903/cmr.3550

Hassan, S., Kaur, P., Muchiri, M., Ogbonnaya, C., & Dhir, A. (2022). Unethical leadership: Review, synthesis and directions for future research. Journal of Business Ethics, 183, 511–550. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-022-05081-6

Jagniatinskis, A., Fiks, B., Mickaitis, M., & Sukys, R. (2017). Features of sound classification scheme designated to label building in Lithuania. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 23(3), 409–420. https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2016.1269021

Kidder, D. L. (2005). Is it ‘who I am’,‘what I can get away with’, or ‘what you’ve done to me’? A multi-theory examination of employee misconduct. Journal of Business Ethics, 57(4), 389–398. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-004-6713-x

Kyaw, K., Olugbode, M., & Petracci, B. (2017). The role of the institutional framework in the relationship between earnings management and corporate social performance. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 24(6), 543–554. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1426

Lasakova, A., Remisova, A., & Bajzikova, L. (2021). Differences in occurrence of unethical business practices in a post-transitional country in the CEE region: The case of Slovakia. Sustainability, 13(6), Article 3412. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13063412

Li, X. J. (2020). Research on investment risk influence factors of prefabricated building projects. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 26(7), 599–613. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2020.12917

Lin, X. L., Clay, P. F., Hajli, N., & Dadgar, M. (2018). Investigating the impacts of organizational factors on employees’ unethical behavior within prganization in the context of Chinese firms. Journal of Business Ethics, 150(3), 779–791. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3209-4

Ma, D. Y., Li, X. D., & Cheng, C. (2020). The impact of the international construction standard application capability on contractors’ competitiveness: Chinese contractors’ experience. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 26(8), 757–774. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2020.13749

Niu, Y. L., Zhao, D, Deng, X. P., Lu, R. Y., & Zhao, X. B. (2021). Determinants for coopetition strategies of international joint ventures in high-speed railway projects. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 27(5), 331–345. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2021.15021

O’Mara-Shimek, M., Guillen, M., & Gomis, A. J. B. (2015). Approaching virtuousness through organizational ethical quality: toward a moral corporate social responsibility. Business Ethics-A European Review, 24, S144–S155. https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12102

Owusu, E. K., Chan, A. P. C., Hosseini, M. R., & Nikmehr, B. (2020). Assessing procurement irregularities in the supply-chain of Ghanaian construction projects: A soft-computing approach. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 26(1), 66–82. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2020.11659

Peale, N. V., & Blanchard, K. (1988). The power of ethical management. William Morrow.

Ruban, D. A., & Yashalova, N. N. (2022). Corporate pro-environmental behavior on the seas: Eco-ethical prescriptions of the largest cruise companies. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering, 10(3), Article 380. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse10030380

Schuler, D., Rasche, A., Etzion, D., & Newton, L. (2017). Corporate sustainability management and environmental ethics introduction. Business Ethics Quarterly, 27(2), 213–237. https://doi.org/10.1017/beq.2016.80

Suleiman, A. (2022). Causes and effects poor communication in the construction industry in the Mena region. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 28(5), 365–376. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2022.16728

Tabish, S. Z. S., & Jha, K. N. 2012. The impact of anti-corruption strategies on corruption free performance in public construction projects. Construction Management and Economics, 30(1), 21–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.654128

Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2021). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. John Wiley & Sons.

Valle, M., Kacmar, K. M., & Zivnuska, S. (2019). Understanding the effects of political environments on unethical behavior in organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 156(1), 173–188. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3576-5

Wang, W. C., Yu, W. D., Yang, I. T., Lin, C. C., Lee, M. T., & Cheng, Y. Y. (2013). Applying the AHP to support the best –value contractor selection – Lessons learned from two case studies in Taiwan. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 19(1), 24–36. https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2012.734851

Xie, L. L., Xu, T., Han, T., Xia, B., Chen, Q., & Skitmore, M. (2022). Influence of institutional pressure on megaproject social responsibility behavior. Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 28(3), 177–195. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2022.16235

Young, C. (2019). Putting the law in its place: Business ethics and the assumption that illegal implies unethical. Journal of Business Ethics, 160(1), 35–51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3904-4

Zhelyazkova, A., Kaya, C., & Schrama, R. (2016). Decoupling practical and legal compliance: Analysis of member states’ implementation of EU policy. European Journal of Political Research, 55(4), 827–846. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12154