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The Internet financial reporting language known as XBRL continues to develop and has now reached the point where much of its promised benefits are available. The authors look at the history of this project, provide a case study of how Morgan Stanley has made use of the system and predict some developments for the future.

EXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is a revolutionary digital language that “tags” information for business reporting since it represents a universal standard for global business reporting. XBRL usage has a significant impact on auditors – both external and internal and is seen as a tool to implement the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants’ (AICPA) new reporting model. The model calls for real‐time, or continuous, reporting of company information. In order to do so reliably, continuous assurance on the data would need to be performed by external auditors. XBRL General Ledger (GL) is a taxonomy incorporating all ledger functions into XBRL. Thus, company information that typically takes days to create could be available in real‐time, anywhere in the world. This article reports on an XBRL survey conducted using accountants and auditors. Results indicate many accountants and auditors have low (if any) knowledge or experience with XBRL and do not perceive the intended benefits XBRL usage provides.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of ownership structure, board attributes and eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) on annual financial reporting timeliness of non-financial companies listed on Borsa Istanbul (BIST).

To conduct the analyses, the authors used two samples. The main sample consists of 187 companies, while the subsample includes 54 companies in the BIST 100 index. The data set covers the 2010–2018 period. To investigate the influence of ownership structure, board attributes and XBRL on timeliness, panel regression and univariate analyses were used. To explore the factors associated with the likelihood of late filing, panel logistic regression analyses were employed.

The findings provide evidence that companies that have a high level of institutional ownership and women board membership file earlier. In line with prior studies, profitable companies file their accounts faster. Highly leveraged companies are late reporters. Further, XBRL has a positive influence on the filing of financial reports for the BIST 100 companies due to technological agility. Finally, companies that have less institutional ownership and that get qualified audit opinions are more subject to late filing.

The authors acknowledge that this study has certain limitations. First, the results may not be generalized to the entire BIST population due to the exclusion of financial companies from the samples. Future research may explore the financial reporting timeliness of these companies. Second, the study did not investigate the relationship between timeliness and the information content in financial statements and the market reactions they arouse. Third, this study is trying to find out early evidence on the mandatory adoption of XBRL filings, which cover only three-year period due to the recent implementation of this regulatory practice. Thus, it needs further elaboration after the accumulation of data in the forthcoming years by the expansion of the sample beyond the 2016–2018 period. As companies would have more time to become familiar with XBRL, a more reliable conclusion may be drawn. Further, the study particularly focuses on the effect of XBRL adoption on the timeliness among filers. XBRL could also influence investors, auditors and other stakeholders. Future research could investigate the influence of XBRL on different stakeholders to produce more insightful implications.

This study offers several implications for managers, regulators and policy makers. First, companies that do not make timely financial reporting may find it more difficult to attract long-term capital by means of institutional investors. Since these investors view timely reporting as an ideal ingredient in corporate governance, it may have a positive impact on company reputation and corporate sustainability. The results also provide insights for regulatory authorities, policy makers and auditors on the causes of the reporting lag, thereby increasing their awareness and helping them in their decision-making process since improvements in timely availability and accessibility of financial information reduce information asymmetry for users and increase market efficiency. Additionally, companies that reduce their filing timeframe will be able to compare their results with other companies. However, the XBRL mandate could be much more burdensome to smaller firms. This may stem from the fact that larger firms may tend to use the in-house approach for XBRL and can afford more advanced financial reporting systems with automated coding algorithms attached to streamline their XBRL filings, whereas smaller firms are more likely to use the outsourcing approach due to the difference in the level of resources available for XBRL preparation. This finding also lends support to recent concerns that new technology creates an unleveled benefit in reporting efficiency for large companies, but not for small ones (e.g. Blankespoor et al., 2014). This benefit may change the dynamics of the financial market and information environment, leading to further segmentation of the capital markets. The positive effects of XBRL adoption may accrue over time due to the potential benefits of learning curve experience since the XBRL mandate will help companies automate their reporting process and information processing, thereby strengthening internal control over financial reporting (Deloitte, 2013; Du et al., 2013; Li, 2017). Companies may also efficiently incorporate auditor-proposed adjustments by cross-referencing impacted accounts and prepare revised versions of the financial reports, which are automatically rendered in various formats for auditors to assess (Wu and Vasarhelyi, 2004). Finally, investors and other users of financial information benefit from having quicker access to data, since this allows them to make more timely and reliable decisions, leading to greater benefits.

This paper contributes to the literature on the impact of adopting XBRL on the timeliness of financial reporting in emerging markets. Second, this study extends the literature and provides evidence on determinants of timeliness, covering both ownership structure and board attributes besides firm-specific characteristics. Hence, it provides valuable insights for companies, investors, auditing firms and policy makers.

The increasing availability of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) financial statements motivates additional investigation of whether XBRL’s search-facilitating technology (SFT) and enhanced viewing capabilities facilitate information search and improve financial analysis decision quality and efficiency. This experiment investigates how using XBRL technology to view financial statements influences novice investors’ decision quality by affecting decision processes such as search strategy and effort, as well as decision efficiency (accuracy/effort) in a financial statement analysis task. In the experiment, randomly assigned student participants (n = 102) invested in companies using either static PDF-formatted or XBRL-enabled financial statements. No differences in decision quality (i.e., accuracy) due to technology use were observed. However, participants in the XBRL condition examined less information, used more directed search processes, and evidenced greater efficiency than did participants assigned to the PDF condition. Hence, the results suggest that XBRL SFT affects the use of differing decision processes relative to PDF technology.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the mandatory adoption of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) on firm’s stock liquidity.

Using a random-effects model, this study examines the impact of the mandatory adoption of XBRL (ADOPXBRL) on firm’s stock liquidity of 980 companies pertaining to 13 countries for a period from 2000 to 2016.

This paper finds that the mandatory ADOPXBRL affects negatively and significatively Amihud’s (2002) illiquidity ratio. Therefore, mandatory XBRL adoption enhances the firm’s stock liquidity. In addition, this paper finds that the impact of the mandatory ADOPXBRL on firm’s stock liquidity is more pronounced in civil law countries than in common law countries.

This paper contributes to the literature on the advantage of XBRL especially for the civil law countries by examining the impact of the mandatory ADOPXBRL on firm’s stock liquidity.

This paper aims to extend the knowledge of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) to synthesize what 20 years of accounting and business literature on XBRL suggests about the effective improvement from its implementation in financial reporting.

A systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis of 142 articles resulted in the identification of 5 primary research streams: adoption issues; financial reporting; decision-making processes, market efficiency and corporate governance; audit and assurance issues; and non-financial reporting.

The results reveal a scarcity of studies devoted to explicating the consequences of XBRL implementation on financial reporting outside the SEC’s XBRL mandate and listed companies’ contexts. Also, some papers’ results question the usefulness of the language on the decision-making process. The overall lack of literature concerning the impact of XBRL on financial statement preparers, especially with reference to SMEs, is evident. Moreover, the consequences on corporate governance choices and the relevant internal decision-making processes are rarely debated.

The findings are useful for users of companies’ financial disclosure policies, particularly for regulators who manage XBRL implementation in countries where XBRL has not yet been adopted as well as for others working in specific areas of financial disclosure, such as non-financial reporting and public sector financial reporting.

This study differs from previous literature on XBRL as it focuses on a wider period of analysis and offers a unique methodology – combination of bibliometric and systematic review – as well as a business perspective for deepening XBRL.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the implementation and development of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The investigation seeks to gauge the roles and experiences of the FDIC and its main stakeholders to determine their engagement in XBRL diffusion within their organizations.

This is an qualitative research approach that is driven by the use of an in-depth case study and supported by the use of semi-structured interviews.

The findings showcase the role played by the FDIC as the first US regulatory authority that implemented and developed Inline XBRL. In addition, the use of diffusion of innovation theory provides better understanding of each stakeholder’s issues, benefits and challenges based on their experience.

The research does not examine the institutionalization of XBRL at the FDIC or its stakeholders. Therefore, future research could incorporate a different research design to capture the impact of the pressure resulting from the regulatory mandate.

The research offers practical insights into public information technology managers and policymakers at global government agencies which are either non-adopters of XBRL technology or current adopters and consider transitioning into Inline XBRL. Global stakeholders could learn from the US experience and develop better understanding of Inline XBRL applications and functionalities.

The originality of this research is driven by the FDIC’s experience as the first regulatory developer of Inline XBRL. As such, the case study is a best practice to future and current adopters who often navigate the nuisance of implementing new technologies and/or developing existing ones.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how firm's agency costs played a role in the voluntary adoption of the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) under the SEC's voluntary filing program (VFP) that encouraged the voluntary adoption of the XBRL.

This study employs a logistics regression and a sample of 140 firms that voluntarily participated in the VFP during its entire existence in the United States, and 140 matched-pair counterparts that did not voluntarily adopt the XBRL to investigate the role of agency costs in the voluntary adoption of XBRL-based financial reporting.

We find evidence consistent with the conjecture that a firm's low magnitude of agency costs plays a significant motivating role in the voluntary adoption of XBRL-based financial reporting. Our results continue to hold after using an alternative measure of agency costs and conducting two-stage least squares regressions. Supplementing these results, the study also shows that the level of agency costs of voluntary XBRL adopters remains statistically unchanged after the adoption while the level of agency costs associated with the firms that did not participate in SEC's VFP significantly decline after the adoption during the XBRL mandate.

The findings of this study suggest that based on a firm's level of agency costs, regulators and policymakers, especially those in countries that are yet to mandate XBRL reporting, can, in advance, identify firms that are more likely to comply with their new financial reporting initiatives.

This paper provides first evidence on the role of agency costs in the voluntary adoption of XBRL using data from the United States.

The study improves current understanding concerning the implications of digital corporate reporting technology on the informativeness of accounting information.

It looks at how XBRL, an exemplar digital corporate financial reporting technology, affects value relevance of accounting information in the US and Japan, two key jurisdictions where XBRL has been mandated. We operationalise stock price and return value relevance models to assess and compare predicted associations between selected accounting measures and market value of equity in these countries.

We predict that the selected accounting measures are more value relevant after XBRL was mandated than before. We find evidence to support our prediction for the US sample. We also predict and find that the contribution of XBRL to the value relevance of the selected accounting measures is greater in the US than in Japan. Overall, our evidence provides support that digital corporate reporting technology enhances relevance and reliability of accounting measures.

The study appears to be the first to have examined the impact of XBRL on value relevance whilst comparing between two major jurisdictions. The study extends emerging but limited literature concerning the benefits of digital corporate financial reporting for enhancing the communication between firms and users of financial information. The findings are useful to both users of financial information and standard setters.

The Securities Exchange Commission mandated eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) filing data provide immediate availability and easy accessibility for both academics and practitioners. To be useful, this data should provide information for decisions, specifically, investment decisions. The purpose of this study is to examine whether the XBRL database can be used with models, developed in previous studies, predicting the directional movement of earnings. The study does not attempt to examine the validity of these models, but only the ability to use the data in the analysis of financial statements based on these models.

The study analyzes New York Stock Exchange companies’ XBRL data using a two-step logistic regression model. The model is then used to arrive at the directional movement of earnings between current and subsequent quarters. Additional models are created by dividing the sample into industry membership.

The results classified companies as realizing an increase or a decrease in earnings. The final model indicated a significant ability to predict earnings changes, on average about 65 per cent of the time, for the entire model, and 71 per cent, for the industry-based models (higher than those of previous studies based on COMPUSTAT). The investment strategy created average quarterly return between 2.8 and 10.7 per cent.

The originality of this study is in the way it examines the quality of XBRL data, by examining whether findings from prior research which relied on traditional databases (such as COMPUSTAT) still hold using XBRL data. The use of XBRL allows not only easier and less-costly access to the data but also the ability to adjust the models almost immediately as current information is posted, thus providing a much more relevant tool for investors, especially small investors.