Under the Table: Exploring the Type and Communication of Corruption on Opportunity Pursuit

While generally illegal, corruption is a cost of doing business in many parts of the world. Competing perspectives suggest both positive and negative effects of corruption on entrepreneurial activity. In this study, we do not ask whether corruption has an effect, but rather ask how much of an effect do different forms of corruption communicated in different ways have on pursuing a new opportunity. We use a three-study, replication-based design to explore the relationship between the type and communication of corruption and pursuing a new opportunity. Across samples in the U.S. and Ghana, we find that "favors," or non-pecuniary corruption, explicitly communicated, lowers opportunity pursuit the most, while "monetary," or pecuniary corruption, implicitly communicated has little effect on opportunity pursuit. Our study sheds light on an under-explored area of corruption research; scholars—and policy makers—should look beyond only monetary forms when exploring corruption's impact on entrepreneurship. For transparency, we post all data, code, and study materials online at  http://bit.ly/2wipQ8u .