Translation in XBRL Standardization: An Actor-Network View

eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) presents new opportunities for integrating information flow within communities of diverse organisations thereby significantly enhancing the business information supply chain. Vital to XBRL success, its standardization is proving to be challenging. This paper investigates the phenomena that occur when heterogeneous actors interact in attempts to standardize XBRL. Drawing upon actor-network theory (ANT) we “follow the actors” participating in XBRL standardization efforts in Australia. Supporting qualitative empirical evidence was collected via interviews and reviews of XBRL technical documentation. By presenting unsuccessful and potentially successful focal actors side by side, we enhance current understanding of the role of focal actors in technology standardization networks. Specifically, focal actors require clear and indispensable value propositions and solid political and financial support to achieve effective translations in technology standardization networks

Institutionalising XBRL for financial reporting:resorting to regulation

By integrating and streamlining financial information within and among various organisations, eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) has been developed with a view to enhancing the efficiency, accuracy, and transparency of corporate accounting information. Taking an inter-organisational focus, this paper investigates the process of how XBRL was institutionalised. It explains and offers insights on how institutional arrangements emerge and become relevant as heterogeneous organisations consider adopting accounting innovations while evidence concerning their benefits is unavailable. The original and overall contribution of this study is that it improves current understanding of coal-face actors' perceptions, behaviours, and strategies as they interact in the organisational field and become engaged in developing accounting innovations to produce the macro-level observations documented in existing institutional theory studies

Digital transformation of business-to-government reporting:An institutional work perspective

Traditional business-to-government reporting is a core remit of the accounting function but is associated with a significant administrative burden on business. This burden is a major obstacle hindering business efforts to achieve core efficiency and innovation objectives. We use the conceptual lens of institutional work to examine how traditional business-to-government reporting is abolished and how digital reporting is established to replace it in attempts to reduce administrative burden but without compromising regulation effectiveness. We adopt a comparative approach to analyse qualitative evidence from three jurisdictions, namely, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and Australia. Regulators across these jurisdictions have been both pioneers and leaders internationally to transform business-to-government reporting in multi-agency settings. Our analyses illustrate how institutional work to develop digital business-to-government reporting across the jurisdictions was shaped by international influences and local factors. We also illuminate how actor engagement issues and the intertwined and mutually reinforcing nature of a mosaic of forms of institutional work shaped the path of these transformations. The study contributes to existing research by explaining how supportive conditions and structures are brought about and made to coalesce in the regulatory business reporting space for digital reporting to become established and widely adopted by business

The SEC’s retail investor 2.0: interactive data and the rise of calculative accountability

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States mandated a new digital reporting system for US companies in late 2008. The new generation of information provision has been dubbed by Chairman Cox, ‘interactivedata’ (SEC, 2006a). Despite the promise of its name, we find that in the development of the project retailinvestors are invoked as calculative actors rather than engaged in dialogue. Similarly, the potential for the underlying technology to be applied in ways to encourage new forms of accountability appears to be forfeited in the interests of enrolling company filers. We theorise the activities of the SEC and in particular its chairman at the time, Christopher Cox, over a three year period, both prior to and following the ‘credit crisis’. We argue that individuals and institutions play a central role in advancing the socio-technical project that is constituted by interactivedata. We adopt insights from ANT ( [Callon, 1986], [Latour, 1987] and [Latour, 2005b]) and governmentality ( [Miller, 2008] and [Miller and Rose, 2008]) to show how regulators and the proponents of the technology have acted as spokespersons for the interactivedata technology and the retailinvestor. We examine the way in which calculativeaccountability has been privileged in the SEC's construction of the retailinvestor as concerned with atomised, quantitative data ( [Kamuf, 2007], [Roberts, 2009] and [Tsoukas, 1997]). We find that the possibilities for the democratising effects of digital information on the Internet has not been realised in the interactivedata project and that it contains risks for the very investors the SEC claims to seek to protect

Does information about wealth inequality and inheritance tax raise public support for the wealth taxes? Evidence from a UK survey

While greater use of wealth taxes has been widely called for in recent academic and popular literature, they seem to be particularly unpopular among the public. In particular, inheritance tax is often singled out the most disliked of all taxes. The unpopularity of wealth taxes matters because this undermines the use of these taxes as a way of potentially both reducing levels of wealth inequality and of providing alternative revenue streams to a Government in times of economic stress. But do the public really oppose wealth taxes from position of adequate knowledge of these taxes – given their relative limited use, and in inheritance taxes’ case, limited incidence? Rather, there is evidence that people are poorly informed about the extent of wealth inequality and the potential for wealth taxes to assist in improving equality. The research reported in this paper explores if information provision to correct false knowledge (or validate correct knowledge) about wealth inequality and inheritance tax could be a suitable, simple, intervention to help raise public support for the wealth taxes? This paper reports results from a face-to-face survey of 2,019 adults aged 16 plus in Great Britain carried out in July 2014. The survey shows that the simple provision of corrective/validating information prompted little change in the positive support for various wealth tax proposals currently being debated. In fact, there is evidence that some of the provision of information, in fact decreased initial levels of comparative support. One implication resulting from this research is that policy-makers will have to engage directly with moral arguments that have been constructed that arguably misinform debates or develop compelling narratives if there is a desire to build support for wealth taxes

INSTITUTIONALIZING XBRL IN THE UK: AN ORGANIZING VISION PERSPECTIVE

eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) presents opportunities for integrating the flow of financial information within communities of diverse organizations which can significantly enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of underlying business information supply chains. Using the organizing vision framework to examine the emergence of XBRL in the United Kingdom, we explore how institutional arrangements are brought about and shape collective action when heterogeneous organizations engage in complex patterns of interaction in attempts to develop XBRL as an ICT innovation. We find that, initially, XBRL entrepreneurs in the UK may have undermined community understanding of XBRL by adopting a technical lexicon that created confusion in the community. Furthermore, lack of adequate tools prevented curious organizational actors from appreciating XBRL benefits in practice. Current and ongoing participation of regulators is increasingly legitimizing XBRL while their coercive influences are increasing urgency and enhancing organizational participation for refining the organizing vision of XBRL in the UK. This paper contributes to existing literature by highlighting the value of the organizing vision framework as a compelling tool to illuminate and explain the institutional impacts of heterogeneous networks of organizational actors on emerging ICT innovations such as XBRL

Translation in XBRL standardization

PurposeExtensible business reporting language (XBRL) presents new opportunities for integrating the flow of financial information within communities of diverse organizations, thereby significantly enhancing the business information supply chain and addressing existing efficiency, accuracy and transparency problems. Vital to its success, XBRL standardization is proving to be challenging. This paper aims to investigate the phenomena that occur when heterogeneous actors interact in attempts to standardize XBRL.Design/methodology/approachDrawing upon actor‐network theory (ANT) the authors “follow the actors” participating in the standardization of XBRL in Australia. Supporting qualitative empirical evidence was collected via interviews and reviews of XBRL artifacts and relevant technical documentation.FindingsThe authors confirm the critical role of focal actors in standardizing XBRL in networks of heterogeneous actors. In addition to clear and indispensable value propositions and solid political and financial support, focal actors must also undertake effective problematization which can determine the manner in which interessement unfolds in their network. It is found that separation or even lack of alignment between technical standardization efforts and social and strategic orientation can be detrimental to translation effectiveness and network stability, and therefore, adversely affect standardization outcomes.Originality/valueBy presenting unsuccessful and potentially successful focal actors side by side, the paper contributes to the current body of knowledge by enhancing current understanding of their role in achieving effective translations in XBRL standardization networks. It also provides the most analytical review to date of actor interaction in XBRL standardization in the literature.</jats:sec