Information Systems Research: Aligning to Industry Challenges in Management of Regulatory Compliance

Managing regulatory compliance is increasingly challenging and costly for organizations worldwide. While there is evidence that research on compliance management is on the increase, to facilitate industry-relevance there is a need to inform future research directions with empirical insights from practice. In this paper, we present the results of an empirical study that examines challenges in managing regulatory compliance, derived from Australian compliance management practitioners. The insights from the study are complemented by results from a set of interviews with compliance management experts. The study reveals the consolidated views of challenges in managing regulatory compliance as experienced by practitioners and as perceived by the experts in the Australian compliance industry. The results indicate core challenges that are agreed on by both stakeholder groups. In particular, the speed of regulatory changes/updates, organisational culture, risk management, scarcity of resources and a lack of value-add perception of compliance are considered the most critical five challenges. We present a discussion of these challenges and highlight their importance for Information Systems research.