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This research aims at determining the host country-specific antecedents which prompt MNCs to break the hyper-norm of anti-corruption and pay bribes abroad. Using anomie theory conjectures, antecedents are divided into opportunities and conditions. Data on more than 1000 MNCs operating in 26 countries was obtained from the World Bank's Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS). A Multilevel model was constructed and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) was used to determine the effect of country-level and firm-level antecedents on the MNC bribery activity. The results show that opportunities including achievement of competitive advantage, host countries' transition periods, and natural resource abundance have positive significant effects on MNCs' propensity to pay bribes. Additionally, host country conditions, such as the law's rigidity and legal system incompetence, also have a significant positive impact on an MNC's propensity to pay bribes. This study advances the literature on corruption in several directions. First, it studies the phenomenon from supply side (i.e. the bribe-payer). Second, it adopts the use of anomie theory which is still a novel approach for studying corruption. Third, it uses the MNC as the unit of analysis rather than country or local firms. Finally, it goes beyond recent studies by focusing on the host country's rather than home country's effect on a firm's bribery activity.

Many studies of privatization adopt the neo-liberal model which focuses on financial and economic distributional outcomes, and ignores social costs transferred to the state or broader society. We adopt a post-Keynesian point of view by identifying the social outcomes of privatization and the recipients of their effect in the society. We review regulation theory and discuss the effects of regulation on social and financial outcomes. Finally, we introduce a balanced regulatory model to show that privatization can become a process that achieves economic development and realizes broader social objectives.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a profound correlation between Operational Risk (OR) that subsists in Banking industry and Knowledge Management (KM). The research aims to provide empirical evidence with regards to whether KM mitigates OR or has no considerable effect on it. The variables under study, along with their distinct dimensions, are subjected to linear regression to obtain verifiable results. The results show that a significant relationship exists between the KM dimensions and the different OR dimensions. The findings verify that some of the KM elements mitigate some of the OR aspects. Hence, management must strive to implement KM techniques throughout the whole organization in an attempt to alleviate OR; provided that operational risk cannot be entirely purged. Culminating operational risk ultimately leads to amplified return on investments and, thus, improved profitability.