Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 1999

The results of the study support cultural relativism since cultural backgroun d is found to play a significant role; they also support universalism since the same ethical c o n v i c t i o ns we r e u p h e l d i n d i f f e r e nt bu s i ne ss environments. Prof. Lee furthermore detected a strong interactive effect between the nature of the bribe and the operating business environment, w i t h the respondents taking environmental factors into consideration wh en deciding how to respond to an ethica l issue. This provides support for the perspective of contextualized hypernorms. F r om such findings, it can be said that cu l t u r a l relativism, universalism, and contextualized hypernorms are complementary rather than competing concepts i n explaining the behaviour of the respondents. Education the Most Effective Wa y Aga i ns t Co r r up t i on The findings of the study have important implications for combatting cross-borde r corruption. For instance education can be used to shape people's attitudes towards corruption. This is a time-consuming process but its effects are long-lasting. A n expedient alternative would be to pass legislation to deter business executives from giving or receiving bribes. It is widely believed that the FCPA has been useful i n policing the behaviour of American businessmen abroad . A n d ma n y i n H o n g Ko n g, including the ICAC, have considered usin g similar legal measures to comba t cross-border corruption . Such legislation can also give ethical businessmen a legitimate excuse to decline a bribe. Howe v er Prof. Lee' s s t ud y also s h ows t h a t A m e r i c an bu s i ne s s executives as well as their counterparts from Hong Kong an d mainland China behave muc h the same way in a foreign country as they do at home — executives who do not practise bribery at home do not do so abroad while those wh o do at home do so abroad. This indicates that such behaviour has little to do w i th the existence or absence of legal control. It would, therefore, be more effective to launch education programmes to cultivate an anti-corruption culture, and to explain h ow corruptio n is defined i n different business environments. The ideal scenario, of course, is for us to exercise creativity in turning legally and ethically controversial proposals into acceptable business arrangments. • Prof. Lee Kam-hon obtained his B.Com. and his M.Com. from The ChineseUniversity in 1967 and 1969 respectively,and his Ph.D. in marketing from Northwestern University in the US in 1975.He joined the University as assistant lecturer in business administration in 1969, becoming lecturer in marketing and international business in 1975, senior lecturer in 1981, and readerin 1987. He was appointed professorofmarketing in 1992. His researchinterests include business negotiations, cross-cultural marketing, and marketing ethics. Research News