This is the deal your company needs to secure a position in a vital emerging market. In the middle of negotiations, you’ve been asked to grant a “commission” to secure the contract. Should you pay—just this once?

According to a recent PwC study on global economic crime, corporate bribery rarely has positive results.

Lost business opportunities in emerging markets

For our 4th Biennial global economic crime survey, we interviewed more than 5,400 companies in 40 countries and found that companies in E7 countries (Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia, and Turkey) reported higher incidences of being asked to pay a bribe.¹ Only 3 percent of North American companies reported having been asked to pay a bribe in their home region, as opposed to 21 to 54 percent of companies doing business in E7 countries. Interestingly, the survey also found that companies asked to pay kickbacks were more likely to lose deals to competitors that were not asked to pay bribes.

Why do businesses that succumb to bribery suffer losses? The study suggests that organizations known to be ethical are less likely to be approached with requests for illicit money. Corrupt individuals prefer to deal with companies whose ethical standards are ambiguous. In addition, business relationships based on illegal transactions are not likely to focus on quality and price—an indicator that the market is not operating according to competitive norms. And companies in the E7 that had implemented effective anticorruption controls and strong, clearly understood ethical guidelines said they suffered up to 50 percent fewer incidents of corruption than other companies.

In short, the study supports the old adage that honesty is the best policy when doing business in any market.