Correspondence: Robert Pinsker, Old Dominion University, 2140 Constant Hall, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA

¹is a CPA and an associate professor at Old Dominion University, where he teaches Financial Accounting courses and did PhD from University of South Florida in 2002. Professor Pinsker's research focuses on behavioral issues related to continuous reporting and XBRL. He has published in The Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Behavioral Research in Accounting, Advances in Accounting Behavioral Research, Journal of Information Systems, and The International Journal of Accounting Information Systems.

²is a CPA, CITP and an associate professor at the University of Missouri, where he teaches Accounting Information Systems; and did PhD from Georgia State University in 1999. Professor Wheeler's research focuses on behavioral issues in the business uses of information technologies. He has published in The Accounting Review, Journal of Information Systems, Behavioral Research in Accounting, Advances in Accounting Behavioral Research, Issues in Accounting Education, and The International Journal of Accounting Information Systems.

Received 5 March 2009; Revised 5 March 2009; Published online 14 May 2009.

Abstract

Businesses continually invest in new information technologies (IT) for improved reporting. EXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is an example of IT that allows financial statements to be transmitted and analysed electronically. The international business community has shown strong support for XBRL, with several countries mandating financial reporting using XBRL. However, even though organisations may be required to transmit XBRL-formatted financial statements, users of such statements would still need to choose whether or not they wish to analyse them with XBRL-enabled analysis tools. Earlier research indicates that the individual user's perceptions of IT tools are frequently negatively biased and that IT tools are commonly underused as a result. If this general finding were to be true for XBRL use, it could seriously affect XBRL's diffusion into the business community. The authors, both CPAs and accounting professors, investigate the relationship between XBRL use and perception by surveying 61 MBA students as proxies for nonprofessional investors. Results indicate that although perceptions of XBRL are generally positive, increased use of XBRL leads to more positive perceptions. Thus, organisations promoting the spread of XBRL should consider making access to XBRL analysis tools as easy and widely available as possible. Additionally, organisations that issue XBRL-formatted reports are perceived more positively than ones that do not issue such reports (a halo effect).