Factors in ICT Innovation's diffusion from an environmental context perspective: The case of XBRL

Abstract

Objectives of the Study: The main objective of this study is to uncover which are the key dimensions that accelerate or retard the diffusion of XBRL within the context of an organization’s environment. There has been a lack of an environmental perspective on the diffusion research in previous studies on XBRL. As the globally coordinated standard of XML specifically developed for financial information reporting, the diffusion of XBRL is in a sense the study of the diffusion of digital online financial information.

Academic background and methodology: The academic background of thesis includes the theories of the diffusion of innovations, standards, and models for external pressures impacting innovation adoption. The main theoretical model used for the empirical analysis is the Technology-Organization-Environment framework. The focus centred on the variables in the environmental context of organizations and this was divided into the four parts: technology support infrastructure, government regulation, industry characteristics and market structure, and cultural and other institutional pressures. The methodology implemented in the study included a case-study approach of target country environments with the data collected from semi-structured interviews.

Findings and conclusions: The findings of the study showed that the most important factors found affecting the diffusion of XBRL are regulatory pressures. Additionally, to a lesser extent the occurrence of path dependencies, certain national market characteristics, and the support infrastructure have an impact.