Female Managers and Corruption in SMEs: A Comparison Between Family and Nonfamily SMEs in Vietnam

Empirical evidence, regarding the impacts of female leadership on firm’s corrupt level, is lack of studies in various research context. The objective of this study is to assess whether female managers impact negatively or positively on the corrupt behavior of family SMEs (household business) and nonfamily SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises). To do that, this paper used regressions, taken from a sample of 1,720 Vietnamese SMEs (based on the survey data of UNU-WIDER), to compare the impact of female percentage in management board in family and nonfamily businesses in reducing the level of corruption of the firms for the period 2011 to 2015.The findings indicated that first, drawing on socioemotional wealth theory and Vietnam context, family SMEs (household businesses) are more likely to engage in corruption. Second, we also found that female participant in management team can promote firms to be less involved in unethical practices such as bribe. However, the positive role of female managers in reducing corruption engagement is moderated by family control. We used upper echelon theory to suggest that female managers tend to have less managerial discretion in family-controlled organizations. This study has practical contributions, especially for policymakers and owners of household businesses.