Goffman’s Return to Las Vegas: Studying Corruption as Social Interaction

Dennis Schoeneborn, Fabian Homberg

    Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    In this paper, we argue that corruption research can benefit from studying corrupt transactions as a particular form of social interaction. We showcase the fruitfulness of a social interaction lens by investigating user reports on the online website Frontdesktip.com, where users share experiences and tips on the best ways of bribing hotel clerks in Las Vegas in exchange for free room upgrades and complimentary extras. We employ a logistic regression analysis to
    examine what factors influence the “successful” performance of this bribery practice. Our study makes a twofold contribution to existing research on corruption. First, on the theoretical level, we show that the typified and scripted character of social interactions can help explain corrupt transactions. Second, on the methodological level, our study demonstrates the usefulness of online self-reports as a non-reactive data source to observe corrupt transactions.
    Original languageEnglish
    Publication date2016
    Number of pages41
    Publication statusPublished - 2016
    Event40. Workshop der WK ORG 2016 - Universität Zürich, Zürich , Switzerland
    Duration: 18 Feb 201619 Feb 2016
    Conference number: 40
    http://org.vhbonline.org/wk-org-workshop-2016/

    Conference

    Conference40. Workshop der WK ORG 2016
    Number40
    LocationUniversität Zürich
    Country/TerritorySwitzerland
    CityZürich
    Period18/02/201619/02/2016
    Internet address

    Keywords

    • Business ethics
    • Bribery
    • Codes of conduct
    • Corruption
    • Online media
    • Social interactions

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