Compliance-as-a-service in information technology manufacturing organizations: An exploratory case study

In recent years, environmental concerns have led to a significant increase in the number and scope of compliance imperatives across all global regulatory environments. The complexity and geographical diversity of these environments has caused considerable problems for organizations, particularly those in high-technology industries. This paper first employs institutional theory to help understand the challenges for information technology manufacturing organizations that emanate from global institutional environments. While cultural-cognitive and normative influences from society-at-large and industry-based bodies have stimulated environment-oriented corporate social responsibility initiatives, it is undoubtedly regulatory influences that have generated the deepest responses in terms of the adoption of new compliance-oriented procedures and protocols. This paper first describes the general response from the organizational field in which high-technology firms operate and notes the extent of the response, with environmental compliance management systems being one of the institutional arrangements that organizations have adopted. The findings of empirical research based on Compliance & Risks Ltd.'s compliance-to-product application and its deployment in Napa Inc., a Silicon Valley-based Fortune 500 company, are then offered and analyzed to illustrate the scale and scope of information systems support required to institute adequate compliance-oriented protocols and procedures in response to global regulatory influences, while also answering concerns raised by normative and cultural-cognitive sources.