Evidence-based Corporate Compliance

Compliance units and comprehensive compliance measures have become common practice in international companies. In spite of this, scandals of corruption, fraud and bribery continue to persist in economies worldwide. Preventive measures are being recommended as best practices without there being sufficient evidence of their actual effects. The project aims at closing this research gap with an interdisciplinary team that includes sociology, psychology, economics and law, and cooperates with E.ON SE and other partners from the filed in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Based on the results, we will offer concrete proposals for ABC-compliance measures that have proven to be effective in preventing wrongdoing by companies in a long-lasting way.

Project aims

The project will identify, in an evidence-based way, the actual effects of compliance measures on companies.
It will evaluate measures as to their effectiveness and sustainability.
Finally, the project explores how to identify risk zones that are hidden (i.a. by "white spots" and socially accepted answers) in operative units of companies, and offer solutions on how to avoid them

Study design

Experts survey to rate compliance measures and evaluate the relevance and mechanisms of Best Practice Compliance Systems and current formats of Risk Assessments
Intervention study with control groups conducted at E.ON to further analyze the measures identified in the expert rating
Qualitative interviews with operative staff to assess their risk assessment of corruption, to identify "white spots" and socially accepted answers