Criminal Compliance in mittelständischen Unternehmen als Instrument zur Eindämmung des Korruptionsphänomens

Corruption threatens global, free and undistorted competition as well as the companies operating in this competition. This dissertation examines the instrumental design required of criminal compliance in order to combat corruption offences in small and medium-sized enterprises effectively. The dissertation project is intended to raise the often-insufficient awareness of the problem of corruption in companies and to invalidate preconceptions about criminal compliance – such as its purported high time expenditure and costs as well as bureaucratisation – in order that it may also become firmly established in small and medium-sized enterprises as an effective tool against corruption.
Derived from current research, particularly in personality psychology, this dissertation picks up on influencing factors in human behaviour in companies as well as in an operating environment that fosters corruption, which affect decision-making behaviour and the propensity to engage in corruption. The interplay of personal and situational factors on corruption is also explored in particular.
Finally, it has been possible to identify personnel and organisational measures (POMs) that have implications for the business practice of small and medium-sized enterprises. This concerns preventive aspects and a detective approach in the form of easily implementable control activities with a significant gain in knowledge. The defined POMs can be seen as a strategic action recommendation for small and medium-sized enterprises, since as part of a necessary exculpation in court they prove that the company has dealt with effective measures to stop corruption. Furthermore, they refute the argument posited by small and medium-sized enterprises that criminal compliance is only feasible for large companies due to the lack of financial and personnel resources of the former. They satisfy the requirement for cost-effective measures, since they build on insights into criminal behaviour and consider the corporate structure of a small company. The developed POMs offer an added value not only for the company size considered in this work, which according to the European Commission’s definition corresponds to a maximum of 250 employees and annual turnover not exceeding EUR 50 million.
The work provides a contribution towards placing the focus of further research in compliance onto the topic of corruption, supplementing current research with important findings, and also offers small and medium-sized enterprises anti-corruption measures that can be practically implemented.