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Researching XBRL as a Socio-technical Object

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New Dimensions of Business Reporting and XBRL

Abstract

The Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is a grammar based on XML that is defined and described in the XBRL 2.1 specification. Instance documents are created by combining XBRL taxonomies and linkbases with data (facts) for a particular context. An alternative view is, XBRL is a mechanism for communicating information for decision-making between interested parties based on a generally accepted way of representing and digitally transmitting symbols of actions and events. XBRL may be both of these and many other things depending on how we frame our methodological understanding for the purposes of research. In this section we present an approach that conceives XBRL as a socio-technical object in the tradition of post-social perspectives (Knorr Cetina 1997; Latour 1996, 1999).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Waikato University, New Zealand

    Joanne Locke & Alan Lowe

  2. New Zealand Aston University, New Zealand

    Joanne Locke & Alan Lowe

  3. Birmingham Waikato University New Zealand, New Zealand

    Joanne Locke & Alan Lowe

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Locke, J., Lowe, A. (2007). Researching XBRL as a Socio-technical Object. In: New Dimensions of Business Reporting and XBRL. DUV. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8350-9633-2_2

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