Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • October 2013
  • Article
  • Management Science

License to Cheat: Voluntary Regulation and Ethical Behavior

By: F. Gino, E. Krupka and R. Weber
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

While monitoring and regulation can be used to combat socially costly unethical conduct, their intended targets are often able to avoid regulation or hide their behavior. This surrenders at least part of the effectiveness of regulatory policies to firms' and individuals' decisions to voluntarily submit to regulation. We study individuals' decisions to avoid monitoring or regulation and thus enhance their ability to engage in unethical conduct. We conduct a laboratory experiment in which participants engage in a competitive task and can decide between having the opportunity to misreport their performance or having their performance verified by an external monitor. To study the effect of social factors on the willingness to be subject to monitoring, we vary whether participants make this decision simultaneously with others or sequentially as well as whether the decision is private or public. Our results show that the opportunity to avoid being submitted to regulation produces more unethical conduct than situations in which regulation is either exogenously imposed or entirely absent.

Keywords

Ethical Behavior; Dishonesty; Regulation; Selection; Social Norms; Behavior; Ethics; Societal Protocols

Citation

Gino, F., E. Krupka, and R. Weber. "License to Cheat: Voluntary Regulation and Ethical Behavior." Management Science 59, no. 10 (October 2013): 2187–2203.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Read Now

About The Author

Francesca Gino

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • January 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Mellody Hobson at Ariel Investments

    By: Lakshmi Ramarajan and Francesca Gino
    • December 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Ed Catmull: Lessons from Leading Pixar Animation Studios

    By: Francesca Gino, Linda Hill, Gary Pisano and Ruth Page
    • December 2022
    • Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

    'Just Letting You Know…': Underestimating Others' Desire for Constructive Feedback

    By: Nicole Abi-Esber, Jennifer E. Abel, Juliana Schroeder and Francesca Gino
More from the Authors
  • Mellody Hobson at Ariel Investments By: Lakshmi Ramarajan and Francesca Gino
  • Ed Catmull: Lessons from Leading Pixar Animation Studios By: Francesca Gino, Linda Hill, Gary Pisano and Ruth Page
  • 'Just Letting You Know…': Underestimating Others' Desire for Constructive Feedback By: Nicole Abi-Esber, Jennifer E. Abel, Juliana Schroeder and Francesca Gino
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College