When the World Economic Forum recently surveyed leaders to identify the greatest impediments to conducting business in developing countries, they cited corruption as the biggest hurdle in Russia, the second biggest in India, and the fifth biggest in both China and South Africa. Governments in some emerging markets have taken action. Legislators and courts in Brazil, China, India, and other countries are starting to take on vote buying, contract rigging, election fixing, and other types of illegal activities. However, the problems stubbornly persist.

A version of this article appeared in the January–February 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review.