•Literature review (137 articles) between 1992–2019 on corruption in international business.•Seven research streams: (1) legislation (2) determinants (3) combating (4) effect on firms (5) political environment (6) effect on management theories (7) effect on FDI & trade.•Synthesizing the antecedents: (1) country factors (2) economic factors (3) cultural factors (4) firm characteristics..•Discussing the consequences: (1) effect on firms (2) effect on FDI and trade (3) political links and lobbying (4) anti-corruption laws.•Calls on the establishment of anti-corruption architecture, both global and local. We systematically reviewed the literature on corruption in international business (137 articles) for the last 17 years between 1992 and 2019. Additionally, we identified seven research streams in this growing literature: (1) the legislation against corruption, (2) the determinants of corruption, (3) combating corruption, 4) the effect of corruption on firms, (5) the political environment and corruption, (6) corruption as a challenge to existing theories of management, and (7) the effect of corruption on foreign direct investment and trade. Based on this review, we recommend that strong international laws are needed to minimize the negative impact of corruption on international business. Firms must also consider corruption when formulating strategies to increase operational efficiency and performance. Finally, corruption challenges some key assumptions of existing theories of management. Scholars need to test and expand these existing theories by considering corruption as an important issue in international business.