The impact of national culture on financial crime
Pages | 373-387 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JMLC-01-2018-0004 |
Date | 07 May 2019 |
Published date | 07 May 2019 |
Author | Ahmed Yamen,Anas Al Qudah,Ahmed Badawi,Ahmed Bani-Mustafa |
Subject Matter | Accounting & Finance,Financial risk/company failure,Financial compliance/regulation,Financial crime |
The impact of national culture
on financial crime
Ahmed Yamen
Department of Accounting, Ain Shams University,
Faculty of Commerce, Cairo, Egypt and Department of Accounting,
American University of the Middle East, Kuwait
Anas Al Qudah
Department of Finance, Yarmouk University, Jordan
Ahmed Badawi
American University of the Middle East, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and
Ahmed Bani-Mustafa
Department of Mathematics, Australian College of Kuwait, Kuwait
Abstract
Purpose –Despite the existence of laws, regulations and sanctions, financial crime remains widespread.
The Panama leakshave proven that people from all over the world areparticipating in money laundering and
other financial crimes. This study aims to investigate the influence of national culture on financial crimes
across 78 countries.
Design/methodology/approach –This study uses Hofstede’s cultural framework as a basis for its
hypotheses on financial crime.It also uses the Basel anti-money laundering indexas a proxy for measuring
the incidenceof financial crime across the countries under review.
Findings –The findings show that countries whose cultural profiles are characterized by low
uncertainty avoidance, low individualism, high masculinity and low long-term orientation have high
rates of financial crime. The finding also shows that countries whose cultural profiles are characterized
by individualism or positive collectivism, uncertainty avoidance and long-term orientation have low
rates of financial crime.
Originality/value –Laws, regulations and sanctions are not the only factors that can help deter the
crime; governments should also take a holistic approach that includes the cultural factors that
encourage deterrence.
Keywords Individualism, Power distance, Long-term orientation, Financial crime, Masculinity,
Uncertainty avoidance, Indulgence, Money laundry
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Financial crime is a serious issue all over the world. This is particularly so in the case of
international terrorism, which continues to increase in both its occurrence and
geographic spread. Acts of terrorism raise questions regarding the sources of finance,
and also how terrorists are able to give legitimacy to the gains achieved from their
illegal acts. These and other questions about financial crime have led scholars to
increasingly focusing on financial crimes, in general and on money laundering, in
particular, in their attempts to find the reasons behind these acts and whether legal
sanctions and regulations are sufficient in deterring these types of crime or whether
The impact of
national
culture
373
Journalof Money Laundering
Control
Vol.22 No. 2, 2019
pp. 373-387
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1368-5201
DOI 10.1108/JMLC-01-2018-0004
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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