Ethical corporate cultures and corporate tax compliance in the Netherlands

• In Event: White Collar Crime at 75: Corporate Compliance in Declining and Emerging Economies

Abstract

Studies on regulatory compliance by companies point at explanatory variables at several aggregate levels: individual, organizational and industry factors. In many studies on regulatory compliance, perceptions of individual managers are easily extrapolated to the company level. Also, it is widely assumed that organizational factors influence individual compliance behavior of managers and employees. However, good measures of corporate ethical cultures and their influence of regulatory (non-)compliance are scarce. This study focuses on the interaction of these factors in explaining regulatory compliance: To what extent are individual motives, company ethical culture and industry norms related to managers and employees intentions to comply with regulations? With data of the Netherlands Tax Administration 198 companies were selected in industries with high and low compliance levels, and within these companies with high and low compliance records. In a survey, both managers and employees of these companies were asked about their intentions to comply with governmental regulations (tax, health, environmental and administrative regulations), their individual motives for (non-)compliance and the perceived ethical culture of the company and the industry.

Authors

• Adriaan Denkers, VU University Amsterdam

• Wim Huisman, VU University Amsterdam