Aloysius Marcus Kahindi | Gustavson School of Business, University of Victoria

Feeling the Strain: Multinational Enterprises and Corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa

Why do some actors associated with multinational enterprises (MNEs) engage in corruption while others forbear? Predominant ‘bad apples’ and ‘bad barrels’ perspectives draw attention to situational and contextual factors that shape individuals’ likelihood of engaging in corrupt behavior, but the individual is treated largely as a black box. As a result, the literature struggles to explain the wide variance in individuals’ actual behavior with respect to corruption. We address this problem through a qualitative study of MNEs operating in six East African countries, drawing on 86 one-on-one interviews and 32 focus groups with MNEs’ expatriate and local employees, government officials, and other key stakeholders. Using strain theory as the theoretical frame for our inductive theory building, we develop a model in which corruption is driven less by opportunities for present gain than by actors’ fear of future loss—of jobs, promotions, social status, or support from kin and ethnic groups. Our findings reassess the microfoundations of corruption encountered and engaged in by foreign MNEs entering into frontier market settings and highlight why punitive, zero-tolerance approaches are unlikely to curb corruption unless the underlying strains that individuals face are addressed.

Aloysius Marcus Kahindi

Aloysius Marcus Kahindi is a Full Professor and Canada Research Chair of Sustainable Innovation at the Gustavson Business School, University of Victoria. His research strives to advance the legitimacy of African entrepreneurship and sustainable development as a core domain in International Business and Strategy scholarship. Historically underrepresented in top-tier journals, African contexts are typically analyzed through deficit-focused lenses, emphasizing institutional voids rather than the continent’s dynamism and economic potential. His work has successfully challenged and reshaped this perspective, positioning Africa as a site of theoretical innovation and empirical richness in international business and strategy research. Specifically, using qualitative research and historical methods on Africa’s frontier markets, his scholarship focuses on three major paradigm shifts in International Business and Strategy:

1. Redefining Africa’s Narrative in Management Research: Prior to Kahindi’s work, Africa was primarily studied through macro-level institutional voids, limiting scholarly understanding to what was lacking rather than what was emergent. His research has pioneered a shift, showcasing Africa’s entrepreneurial human capital, relational assets (diaspora networks, familial and ethnic ties), and the interplay of formal and informal institutions in fostering innovation and business growth.
   
   
2. Decentering National-Level Institutional Analysis: Kahindi’s research has exposed the inadequacies of prior studies that homogenized Africa’s institutional landscape at the national level. He has introduced a more nuanced, community- and regionally focused lens that highlights the dynamism of African economies, offering a granular understanding of entrepreneurial ecosystems, informal markets, and socio-economic resilience. This shift has been instrumental in shaping contemporary discourse in elite management and strategy journals.
   
   
3. Addressing Grand Challenges through a Micro-Sociological Lens: Kahindi’s research examines how corruption, poverty, and youth unemployment are often framed as structural challenges in Africa. His research employs a micro-sociological approach to dissect the antecedents of corruption and the role of necessity-driven innovation in clandestine markets. His ongoing research, currently under review at different journals, offers a novel lens on how individuals navigate moral and economic dilemmas in environments of scarcity, with critical implications for both theory and policy in IB and Strategy scholarship.