Search Results (8)

In this paper, we identify the synergic link between the organisational elements sustainability and digitalisation by implementing digital sustainability reporting (DSR) in the context of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). Founded on bibliometric analyses and a literature-based scientific discussion, this conceptual paper provides modern definitions of sustainability, digitalisation, and digitainability. Additionally, based on analyses of the CSRD regulatory framework, a definition of DSR is suggested. Our findings align with those of other scholars who highlight the crucial role of digitainability in successfully executing organisational changes. Furthermore, the CSRD’s role in providing a digital framework for sustainability reporting (SR) and shaping organisational digitainability is outlined. This study uncovers a novel collection of emerging digitainability concepts compliant with the DSR requirements under which organisations can pursue organisational transformation. This paper also provides DSR-related recommendations to top management for adopting organisational systems to comply with CSRD reporting requirements. Full article

Digital financial reporting enables automated analyses on vast datasets. This study illustrates the benefits of integrating XBRL and machine learning. XBRL, an open-source financial reporting language, was used to create a unified database of over 5600 IFRS-tagged reports. The IFRS taxonomy tags containing textual data on company activities were analyzed using the Zero-Shot Learning algorithm to identify specific activities. This study highlights how digital reporting and machine learning can extract and analyze textual data, offering insights into company activities and demonstrating the potential of these technologies in financial reporting. Full article

Modern advances in technology have increased the demand for traditional accounting systems to be upgraded for real-time data processing, security, and standardized reports. Thus, this paper proposes a new accounting information system that integrates IoT, blockchain, and XBRL. The proposed system aims to automate the accounting process by using IoT to collect data and send it automatically to a blockchain, which acts as a database that will generate journal entries automatically through smart contracts. XBRL will then be used as an output method for standardized financial reports based on the data transferred from the blockchain. This paper uses a qualitative research design based on semi-structured interviews with 13 industry experts from IT engineering, academia, and financial systems analysis. NVivo software was used to conduct a thematic analysis of interview transcripts. The findings demonstrated that integrating IoT, blockchain, and XBRL is technically feasible, with significant potential to enhance accounting systems. Additionally, the findings identified key challenges of the proposed system, including the complexity of integration, data validation across technologies, costs, user adoption, and scalability concerns. However, the results showed that this system offers substantial benefits, such as real-time data capture from IoT devices, secure data storage and immutability through blockchain, standardized financial reporting via XBRL, accounting process automation, improved data accuracy, and enhanced security and transparency in financial reporting. The study also identified an optimal mechanism for ensuring seamless data transmission between these technologies. The study makes a valuable contribution to the accounting field by providing a new framework for automating data collection, enhancing data security, and streamlining financial reporting, with significant potential to advance accounting systems and improve transparency, accuracy, and efficiency in financial reporting. The study’s potential to impact accounting systems and financial reporting research and practice emphasizes its importance. Full article

Over the last few decades, remarkable technical advancements, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, blockchain, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things, have emerged. These tools have the ability to change the accounting process. This study aims to conduct a systematic literature review on using the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, and eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) in a single accounting information system (AIS) to enhance the quality of digital financial reports. This paper employs a systematic literature review (SLR) methodology, specifically, by adopting the widely accepted PRISMA technique. The final sample of this study included 309 related studies from 2013 to 2023. Our findings highlight the lack of literature related to the integration of these three types of technologies within a unified AIS. This study is extremely significant because it proposes a new research stream that explores the possibility of integrating IoT, blockchain, and XBRL in a single accounting system, yielding a plethora of benefits to the accounting field. However, the potential benefits of such an integration are evident, including enhanced transparency, real-time reporting capabilities, and improved data security. Our paper’s main contribution is that it is the first paper, to the best of our knowledge, to explore the integration of these three technologies. We also identified important gaps in the research and pointed out ways for future research to somehow take a lead in exploring further how this integrated system is affecting accounting practices. Full article

The adoption and diffusion level of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) technology among listed enterprises is an important indicator of the capital market‘s openness and efficiency degree. In this study, we established an evolutionary model between the government, listed enterprises, and institutional investors, analyzed the evolutionary path and evolutionary law of the model, and conducted numerical simulations. In the numerical simulations, we discussed the impact of different parameters change on the strategic choices of the three parties, and the results show that increasing government enforcement and subsidies intensity, reducing the adoption cost for listed enterprises, increasing the incremental benefits of adoption for enterprises, and increasing the participation level of institutional investors all promote the adoption of XBRL technology by listed enterprises. The adoption behavior of listed enterprises is driven by a combination of the government’s policy guidance and institutional investors’ XBRL engagement level. Therefore, this paper is an effective supplement to the innovative technology adoption and diffusion theory and provides policy recommendations and management insights for the government’s efforts in promoting XBRL technology, which is conducive to solving the problem of insufficient motivation for XBRL technology adoption by listed enterprises. Full article

The rapid use and development of information and communication technology capabilities in the public sector has revolutionized the mechanism that government agencies use to collect, process, and disseminate data. Electronic government is one of the strategic initiatives that many government agencies have considered adopting to offer efficient web-based services and operations. Although there have been efforts to examine the implementation process of technological innovations in financial and business reporting, many government agencies are about to face a bigger challenge in developing or adopting current technologies to assess their usefulness for non-financial sustainability reporting. The Extensible Business Reporting Language, XBRL, has been adopted by the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to process financial data in the quarterly call reports filed by banks. Using Rogers’ well-established theory of innovation adoption process, this paper discusses the FDIC’s XBRL implementation process and investigates the roles and experiences of the agency’s stakeholders. A case study research methodology, supported by semi-structured interviews, is used to explore each phase of the implementation process. The findings reveal that the process was facilitated by stakeholder engagement, technical support, and the agency’s strategic decision-making process. This paper contributes to the literature by examining the applications, benefits, and challenges of using XBRL technology to process non-financial sustainability data, which is still an under-researched area. Therefore, the implications for using the technology in non-financial reporting will be insightful for future regulatory adopters and their stakeholders including filer banks, software vendors, and various users of financial and non-financial information. Full article

The regulatory environment for both sustainability and financial reporting is changing as standardisation and digital reporting (e.g., XBRL) are gaining traction within regulators. The measurement methodology and mandatory information content of disclosures are yet to be decided for corporate CO₂ reporting by EU regulators and standard-setting organisations. In our study, we reviewed the sustainability reports of three leading German automotive groups by revenue for the period 2016–2020 as a case study. The research methodology was carried out with text-mining-aided content analysis to provide a collection of sustainability standards (GRI and SASB) in the evaluation of emissions reporting. As an addition to prior literature, conditions of relevance and clarity regarding published information were introduced in the evaluation process of compliance to CO₂ disclosures. Companies by reporting practice were assigned to different stages of carbon management and actual emissions were evaluated. In the conclusions, discussion of the reliability of reported sustainability information, the applicability of digital reporting is provided through regional perspectives. We found that although analytical methods are available to assess the level of corporate carbon management, their usefulness is limited if the data are not reliable. Significant progress can be expected from analyses using standardised, comparable corporate carbon data. Full article

Corporate financial statements address multiple stakeholders’ needs. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), among others, allow two different classifications, “by function of expense” and “by nature of expense”, for the statement of profit and loss and other comprehensive income for the period (from now on, also identified in short as “Income Statement”, or “IS”). XBRL standards ensure compliance and consistency in financial statements’ drafting and filing. XBRL taxonomies reflect the Income Statement IFRS disclosure requirement in the {310000} and {320000} codifications, respectively. Given the recent EU enhanced regulations that proposed extend mandatory ESG reporting to SMEs, this study aims to design and recommend an additional Income Statement to embed structured Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure. A restatement of the IS is organised following an adjusted Value-Added perspective to fit the purpose of sustainability disclosure. The above-mentioned Income Statement should be suitable and adaptable for entities of any size and operating in any industry. This goal can be achieved through customised input weighting. Therefore, this applied research can fill a current financial ESG disclosure gap, ensuring financial statements’ comparability and encouraging additional mandatory disclosures through standardisation. Two more items in the XBRL (IFRS-based) structure are suggested, leading to the introduction of one fully structured statement “{330000}—Statement of comprehensive income, profit or loss, by Added Value, ESG based” and a semi-structured “{814000}—Notes—ESG Ratings and Reporting” to better discuss and disclose the assumptions and results of the ESG Statement. Full article