In the hunt for sources of competitive advantage, scholars have identified opportunities in most business-related disciplines, including marketing, accounting, human resources, and management. Competitive advantage from cross-functional perspectives such as organizational capital, human capital, and global competition have also received vast amounts of scholarly time and attention. The end result has been a cornucopia of research on improving organizational strategy to capture and sustain competitive advantage. Despite this fact, the thought of an organization’s regulatory and legal landscape as a source of advantage has remained largely unexplored.

The increased corporate regulation brought about by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and the increased demand for legal compliance programs, coupled with the trend in using litigation as a tool for business reform, have increased organization’s regulatory obligations. This increased scrutiny means that legal and regulatory issues may be one of the most important determinants in a organization’s external operating environment.

Compliance is quite possibly the last great source of untapped competitive advantage available today.

To download the latest research from University of Connecticut Asst. Professor Robert C. Bird, the paper that started it all, click below.

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