XBRL-Enabled, Excel or PDF? The Effects of Exclusive Technology Choice on the Analysis of Financial Information
39 Pages Posted: 22 Jun 2011
Date Written: June 21, 2011
Abstract
U.S. adoption of search-facilitating technology has been slow and several constituencies question whether investors will choose to use the XBRL-formatted information the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is now requiring companies to provide. Unlike prior research, we use an exclusive choice experimental design to examine (1) which reporting technology nonprofessional investors will choose to complete a financial analysis task (XBRL-enabled, portable document file, or spreadsheet) and (2) why they choose the specific technology.
We found 66 percent of nonprofessional investor proxies chose to use XBRL-enabled technology, while 34 percent chose spreadsheets. Participants who chose XBRL-enabled technology perceived it reduces the time required to complete the task (i.e., increases task efficiency) while participants who chose spreadsheets indicated their technology choice was driven by amount of prior experience with that technology. Our findings have implications for the technology choice literature, regulators mandating or considering mandating XBRL-based reporting, and XBRL-enabled technology adoption.
Keywords: exclusive technology choice, user choice, XBRL-enabled technology adoption
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