Paying the piper: An empirical examination of longer-term financial consequences of illegal corporate behavior

Longer-term performance effects of corporate illegality were investigated. Results show that firms experience lower accounting returns over five years and slower sales growth in the third through fifth year after a conviction. Stakeholders appear to paint all corporate wrongdoers with the same brush, ignoring the seriousness of illegalities, but responding strongly to multiple convictions for wrongdoing. Reduced financial performance does not deter subsequent illegality.