Corporate communication as discursive decriminalization and symbolic compliance in transnational corruption criminal...

This study examines how multinational corporations strategically communicate their own corruption during criminal proceedings. Through qualitative content analysis, we analyze press releases and annual reports from 10 corporations convicted in Switzerland for organizational deficiencies in relation to bribery of foreign public officials between 2011 and 2023. Drawing on corporate decriminalization and symbolic compliance theory, we investigate corporate communication's timing, framing strategies, and sequencing before, during, and after their criminal proceedings. Our results show that corporate communication is primarily reactive, driven by market regulations, media or public scrutiny, and judicial authority disclosures. We identify four distinct framing strategies employed by corporations to address their corruption cases: criminal frames acknowledging legal gravity while emphasizing compliance or cooperation, illegal frames downplaying severity by avoiding criminal terminology, managerial frames recasting corruption as technical mistakes, and righteous frames denying wrongdoing entirely. Companies initially minimize or deny corruption allegations, then acknowledge criminality when authorities announce conclusions from proceedings, before gradually returning to downplaying strategies. This dynamic framing serves reputation management while responding to stakeholder expectations and legal constraints. The study contributes to criminological theories of decriminalization and symbolic compliance by understanding, why and how, through their own communications, corporations systematically resist framing their misconduct in criminal terms and manage this resistance while navigating the institutional pressures of criminal proceedings.