[solved] When it comes to the practice of some businesses paying bribes and kickbacks to secure government contracts, obtain a license or permit from government agencies, or win/retain the business of customers, it is fair to say that

if the payment of bribes/kickbacks is legal in a particular country, then it is ethical for a company to pay them.

it is ethically acceptable for a company to pay them so long as such payments are allowed in the company's written code of ethics.

it is very difficult (and logically inconsistent) for a multinational company to ethically justify such payments in countries where bribes and kickbacks are common practice when it does business in countries where such payments are illegal and/or when the company's code of ethics forbids such payments.

the ethical relativism school of thought is correct in asserting each businessperson has the freedom to set his/her own standards for deciding whether the payment of bribes/kickbacks is ethically acceptable or not.

if the payment of bribes/kickbacks is normal and customary in a particular culture/society/country, then--according to both integrative social contracts theory and the school of ethical universalism--it is ethically acceptable for a company to pay them in conducting its business activities in that culture/society/country.