Practicing professionals and future research could consider the interplay between the behaviors
that are considered acceptable at the corporate versus the societal level. Chirayath, Eslinger, and De
Zolt (2002) suggest that the incidence of corporate deviance is likely to increase in the foreseeable
future due to the implications of globalization, the desire for increased profits, and the declining role
of the regulatory agencies across much of the world. Overall, the authors find that oligopolization
(market structure) lends itself to additional opportunities for corporate deviance. More specifically,
the authors find that concentration of assets and resources in the hands of a relatively small number
of large corporations lends itself to additional opportunities for corporate deviance caused by
greater ability to circumvent existing regulations. In related work focusing on China, Liu (2005)
examines changes in relative crime levels during the change in China from state socialism to a more
market-oriented economy between 1978 and 1999. Classical Durkheimian theory would suggest
that crime rates rise during periods of social upheaval. Liu found that economically motivated crime
increased at a faster rate than many other types of crime (e.g., property and violent crime). The
paper notes that economic upheaval creates incremental opportunity for increased economic crime.
Findings such as those presented by Chirayath et al. (2002) and Liu (2005) may have applicability
to emerging third world nations as they move toward more market-driven economies and could be a
fruitful area for accounting fraud researchers.