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1. Introduction
In the digital age, information specialists are regularly confronted by new technologies that will "revolutionise" the way information is retrieved, stored and managed. One such technology that is being touted as being revolutionary is eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL). The study on which this paper is based investigated to what extent this technology, which is specifically applicable to financial information, has been adopted in the South African market. While it is an innovation in a very specific area, i.e. financial information, the findings are applicable to the wider arena of information and knowledge management, as it is one subset of information management technology.
XBRL is technology that tags pieces of financial data, with the aim of making the analysis and retrieval of data easier, quicker and more cost-effective. It is based on the same principle as HTML, but is more focused in the adoption sphere, i.e. financial reporting data by organisations. Individual pieces of financial data are backed by metadata, which facilitates this data processing process.
According to a discussion document of the XBRL International Standards Board (XSB), at the start of 2010 there were more than 600 member organisations of XBRL worldwide. This included companies, regulatory bodies, accounting standard setters, accounting firms and software companies ([47] XSB, 2010, p. 7). While this might appear to be an indication of a big uptake of this new technology, it should be borne in mind that the first version of XBRL was already launched in April 2000, and the version currently in use was launched in 2003 ([47] XSB, 2010, p. 6).
Internationally the drive for the adoption of XBRL has come, in many instances, from regulatory bodies, for example in the US the Securities and Exchange Commission has made XBRL filings mandatory from 2011 ([38] Securities and Exchange Commission, 2009). In South Africa, filings using XBRL are not mandatory, and the adoption of XBRL is therefore largely voluntary. This situation provides the chance to investigate the adoption of XBRL without the interference of legislative effects. This study adds to the limited literature ([37] Rawashdeh, 2010) on XBRL adoption. Given the slow uptake of XBRL (adopted by only 36 per cent of companies in the US to date), this study should be valuable in driving...