Institutional Analysis of Corruption Configurations in South-West Asian Countries: A Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA)

Considering corruption as one of the chronic harms of the administrative system,and the social factor affecting economic growth, the present study sought toexplain, for the first time, the differences in the perceived levels of corruptionamong 16 Southwest Asian countries, relying on the sociological “newinstitutionalism” theory in analyzing organizations, describing causalmechanisms and their mutual impact, and creating corruptive contexts. Thefuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Method (fsQCA) and the secondary data wereused to find the causal configurations leading to corruption in these cases. Theexperimental judgment led to two causal configurations showing that someinstitutional requirements of the institutional environment, in contrast to therequirements of the technical environment, exacerbated the gap between formaland informal structures. Conflicts lead to the formation of informal norms andnetworks that, over time, provide shared mental patterns for actors in executingcurrent actions and confronting ambiguity and uncertainty; and on the basis ofcontextual rationality, they are interpreted as an appropriate way of acting. Thisreduces the costs of corruption and increases the opportunity for abuse bydiminishing supervision and control and strengthening informal networks.