Iman Ragaei Kamel, Samir Abd El Wahab and Iman Karam I.M. Ashmawy
The aim of the study is to examine the effect of public attitude on petty corruption.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the study is to examine the effect of public attitude on petty corruption.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a survey study on customers of a licenses providing authority (N = 390) in Cairo, Egypt. The authors use Akers social learning theory of crime and deviance and take into consideration criticisms of it. The authors control for individual and organizational level determinants that are identified by scholars as influencing people's attitudes toward corruption and which could be known through the authority customers' experiences. Because the dependent variable is binary, whether a person paid a bribe during last transaction with this authority or not, the authors use binary logistic regression.
Findings
The findings indicate that people are more likely to engage in petty corruption when they see it as acceptable, have previous petty corruption experience and when they use a mediator. Also, of those who dealt with that civil service authority during and directly after the 25th of January Revolution (N = 161) 31% reported that they did not engage in petty corruption in comparison to previous years. They referred this to a change in attitude at the time.
Originality/value
The policy implications of the research are important. Social science theories could generate cultural and policy relevant solutions for petty corruption; however, they have not been taken full advantage of. Also, experience-based country-specific corruption survey studies are important input for an effective anti-corruption policy.
Details
Keywords
Zeinab Abbas Zaazou and Doaa Salman Abdou
The impact of COVID-19 outbreak freeze economic actors and hold innovative startups. This triggered the researchers to investigate the effect of the pandemic on small- and…
Abstract
Purpose
The impact of COVID-19 outbreak freeze economic actors and hold innovative startups. This triggered the researchers to investigate the effect of the pandemic on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt and how do these start-ups deal on the whole with this serious situation.
Design/methodology/approach
The research in hand used both qualitative and quantitative methods. It started first with semi-structured interview questions addressed to a number of participants, then a quantitative study took place, ending with conclusion and recommendations.
Findings
There is an agreement among all participants that entrepreneurs should always be flexible and seek for investments in innovation. However, there is a discrepancy among participants’ opinions regarding the measurements taken by the Egyptian Government post the pandemic outbreak.
Research limitations/implications
The field study results and the exploratory research results would have come out more accurate if it was not confined only to geographical limitation (Cairo Governorate).
Practical implications
The research in hand suggests that practical measurements should not only provide first aid to start-ups by alleviating the pressure caused by constrained cash flow but also consider long-term measures embedded in and supported by the wider entrepreneurial ecosystem to ensure start-ups rapid recovery and growth.
Social implications
SMEs attribute to social and economic change and have an impact on the local public and social services sector as a result of the business’s activities.
Originality/value
This study first illustrates the challenges entrepreneurs are facing because of the pandemic, then it presents how entrepreneurs are dealing with the effects of the crisis.