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The Evolution of Vocabularies and Its Relation to Investigation of White-Collar Crimes: An Institutional Work Perspective

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Abstract

White-collar crimes are illegal and unethical actions by agents of an organization. In this paper, we address two related research questions concerning white-collar crime—how did the language of white-collar crime evolve? And how did this language co-evolve with the investigation of white-collar crime? Building on research on institutional work, we find that key institutional actors such as the Presidential Office are likely to use frames and adopt a particular language (i.e., the term “white-collar crime”) in order to legitimize institutional practices (i.e., investigation of white-collar crimes). Conversely, less powerful actors such as the law enforcement agencies are then likely to use narratives to shape language in order to mobilize other stakeholders to continue the adoption of the referent practice. We uncover these findings by using qualitative methodology and trend analysis. We conclude with a detailed theoretical discussion of the role of institutional actors in institutional work and the implications of our research.

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Notes

  1. Given the complexity of factors which may influence investigation of white-collar crime, we do not make any assertions about causality in this paper. The primary purpose here is to simply highlight and explore the co-evolution of (or correlation between) the language of white-collar crime and the practice of investigating white-collar crime.

  2. We argue that white-collar crime is illegal, but it is also unethical. However, we acknowledge that not all illegal acts are deemed unethical and many unethical acts are not illegal. We thank an anonymous reviewer for highlighting this nuance.

  3. As noted before, very few documents on white-collar crime were published during this second period.

  4. Our analysis showed that, until 1969, the term white-collar crime was not used by the Presidential Office, the law enforcement agencies and was rarely used by the media. Prior to 1969, we found 2 and 3 records of articles in the media using the term white-collar crime for years 1968 and 1967, respectively.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indian School of Business, Gachibowli, Hyderabad, 500 032, India

    Abhijeet K. Vadera

  2. Department of Business Administration, College of Business, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, 1206 South Sixth St, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA

    Ruth V. Aguilera

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  1. Abhijeet K. Vadera
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Correspondence to Abhijeet K. Vadera.

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We thank Section Editor, Professor Thomas Clarke and the three anonymous reviewers for their very useful suggestions. We also thank Mike Bednar, Geoff Love, Rose Luo, Eric Neuman, as well as participants at the University of Illinois proseminar series for their very useful and pointed comments on the earlier versions of the paper.

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Vadera, A.K., Aguilera, R.V. The Evolution of Vocabularies and Its Relation to Investigation of White-Collar Crimes: An Institutional Work Perspective. J Bus Ethics 128, 21–38 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2079-x

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