This paper investigates how informal payments to physicians (“red packets”) become normalized within hospitals. Drawing on interviews and archival sources from Chinese hospitals, the authors propose a process model built from four reinforcing building blocks (organizational arrangements, constrained supervision, rationalizations, and socialization) and highlight how cultural resonance (e.g., gift-giving traditions) helps legitimize these practices. Key implications for scholars, policy makers, and health-care leaders concern how organizational design and culture can enable or disrupt professional corruption.
Authors & affiliations:
- Milo Shaoqing Wang (Arizona State University)
- Royston Greenwood (University of Alberta)
