Paradigm Shifts in Causes of Fraudulent Actions: Triangle, Diamond and The Others

Abstract

Identifying the factors cause fraudulent actions is an intensely debated issue and it has an extensive intellectual pedigree. It is fair to say that fraud triangle theory is the primary paradigm on causes of fraudulent actions in the accounting literature. Due to the changing business world and lifestyle, in the following years, from 1950 to the present, many different views emerged. Although some of these have caused paradigm shifts, we cannot talk about conversion. In this study fraud triangle theory and following models are comparatively examined and it is concluded that the focus on the causes of fraudulent actions has shifted from employees to executives and researchers are more concentrated on behavioural characteristics. In addition, fraud diamond model is considered to be the approach that created the paradigm shift for the causes of fraudulent actions.