Chapter
Nov 30, 2023

Social Networks and Top Management Fraud in the Construction Industry

ABSTRACT

Corruption has been identified as a major problem prevalent in the construction industry. These dishonest behaviors may be related to top managers due to a company’s hierarchy of reporting relationships. To investigate the drivers of fraudulent activities in a firm, this paper concentrated on the role of top managers and examined the impact of the individual-level and firm-level variables on the likelihood of fraud based on the social network theory. It was proposed that as the social network becomes larger, an executive may be more likely to commit illegal activities. This study collected data on 2017 top managers of 118 construction companies in China from 2013 to 2021. Considering that the data involve both the individual-level and the firm-level characteristics, we used hierarchical linear modeling. The results show that there is a significant positive effect of social networks on top management fraud. The multi-level research may help to understand managers’ fraudulent behaviors within an organization and extend the literature on social networks and corporate governance in the construction industry.

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ICCREM 2023
Pages: 161 - 170

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Published online: Nov 30, 2023

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Assistant Professor, College of Civil Engineering, Hunan Univ., Changsha, Hunan, China (corresponding author). Email: [email protected]
Tongbing Wang [email protected]
College of Civil Engineering, Hunan Univ., Changsha, Hunan, China. Email: [email protected]
College of Civil Engineering, Hunan Univ., Changsha, Hunan, China. Email: [email protected]

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