Violations of the social license to operate: Evidence from fraud investigation reports

Abstract

Traditionally, white-collar and corporate crime research has focused on the role of the criminal justice system in prosecuting and punishing offenders and offenses. The frequent lack of prosecution and punishment has been explained by various theoretical perspectives that reflect the legal license to operate. However, the emerging perspective of the social license to operate illustrates punishment at violations that can cause termination of executives, market loss, and other serious harm to individuals and firms. This article presents three case studies where fraud examiners reviewed the legal license when the social license was ignored. There is an interesting avenue here for future white-collar and corporate crime research in distinguishing between punishment from violations of the legal license and punishment from violations of the social license to operate.