Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is an important new technology for the electronic communication of business and financial data. XBRL is an important phenomenon in today's business life. It will be more important in the future, because of many advantages it offers. Researchers are getting more interested to investigate this issue. Because research in South Africa, Australia and the USA showed unacceptably low levels of awareness and understanding of XBRL, research was conducted to determine the levels of awareness and understanding of XBRL among accounting and finance lecturers in Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM). The study was limited to accounting and finance lecturers. Findings from the study show that, there is a little knowledge among the accounting and finance lecturers in UUM regarding the awareness and understanding of XBRL. This is explained by the results found from the survey where 75% of respondents said "they have heard" of XBRL however, only 27% of them are fully aware of this technology. In spite of these findings, the majority of respondents acknowledged the fact that it was necessary for either them or someone in their organization to investigate the matter of XBRL in the near future.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
1.1 Introduction
The Internet and Information Technology are playing important role in our business life. Implementing new technologies, using new software, bringing, adopting new innovations to the business is helping companies to make effective business. Using Internet as a tool for communicating corporate information is becoming increasingly popular in companies. These companies are reporting their financial statement through the Internet as information to the various groups of external users and sharing information with them. Nowadays one of the new tools for reporting financial statement through the Internet is stands for Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL).
It is an electronic communication of business and financial data language developed to present financial statement on the Internet. The key advantage of this new "language" is that an identifying tag is applied for each individual item of data instead of treating them as a block of text.
Since the financial data is now tagged, it thus can be recognized by the recipient party's computer. Accountants, auditors, regulators and financial analysts are used for other purposes; and also present variety of ways in a fraction of a second and eliminate the possibilities of human error during the re-keying of financial data. This will allow flexibility while enhancing transparency and timely dissemination of relevant financial information.
Nel and Steenkamp (2008) noted that Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) has been described in various ways, among others, "revolutionizing" (XBRL International 2007a), "groundbreaking" (Pinsker, 2003), "a critical technology" (Burnett, Friedman & Murthy, 2006) and a "source of fundamental change" (Troshani & Doolin, 2007). "XBRL is a language for the electronic communication of business and financial data which is revolutionizing business reporting around the world" (XBRL International 2007a).
As such, XBRL is a technology that is particularly relevant to chartered accountants and the greater accounting and auditing community, because one of its major benefits is more accurate and reliable reporting. It offers cost savings, greater efficiency and improved accuracy and reliability to all those involved in supplying or using financial data.
XBRL is the evolution of protocols, with its origin in HTML. Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a well-known markup language that was developed to display data or text on, websites, for example. To specify the formatting of text, the text would have "tags" indicating the desired formatting - for example <b>bold</b> would display as bold, with the tags between the < and > signs.
Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a more advanced markup language, which describes the data and says what the data are. Thus, instead of a number just being a number, XML indicates what that number is, say, a debtor figure or employee number. It therefore adds meaning to data, aiding in the efficient processing thereof by computer software. It does this by adding "tags" to the data, again contained in < and > signs. If an employee number is formatted in the XML format, it might resemble the following: <EmployeeNo>123456</EmployeeNo>. These data are therefore identifiable by the software as not only text, but text in a specific context, say, an employee number (Nel & Steenkamp, 2008).
An important part of XML is that it is "extensible", meaning that users or companies can define their own tags. Different organizations might therefore use, define or allocate tags differently. Hence users from different organizations cannot necessarily make use of tagged data from another organization. In the above example of the employee number, another company may make use of the tag <EmplNo>, which would render the tag useless when used outside the specific organization (Bagranoff, Simkin & Norman, 2008; Dykes & Tittel, 2005).
XBRL is a variant of XML, developed specifically for business and financial reporting. XBRL solves the abovementioned problem of inconsistency between organizations in the context of financial and business data. XBRL creates reporting protocols that standardize the tags used to communicate financial and business data electronically. These tags are all included in the XBRL "taxonomy", which is the dictionary XBRL uses to define the meaning of the different tags (XBRL International 2007b). XBRL adds a standardized tag to data indicating the nature of the data, for example "Trade debtors". This makes the data understandable to the computer, while still being readable by humans. It can also add tags showing whether it is a monetary or other numerical item and whether it belongs in a particular grouping or classification, say, current assets, as well as the financial period the figure relates to (Flowerday, Blundell & Von Solms, 2006).
XBRL is not only applied to financial or numerical data, but also to text data. Thus the company's accounting policy and its subcomponents may also be identified by XBRL tags. Since it forms part of the XML family, it is also extensible, and can therefore be customized to suit the needs of different organizations and industries (Higgins & Harrell, 2003). There are indeed groups working at developing specific tags for specific industries (Higgins & Harrell, 2003), some of which have already been finalized in the USA, for example, taxonomies for banking, insurance and investment management (XBRL International 2007a).
If we look for the accounting aspect of XBRL, it brings great benefits. As a language that can align financial concepts, XBRL facilitates the principle-based accounting and accounting standards. The utilization of XBRL is convenient for converting financial reports and data into various file formats in accounting system. It is an extensible business reporting language which can convert or work with many existing financial data in different software programs such as Microsoft Word and Excel, Adobe, Oracle, and etc. If XBRL becomes world-wide standard software for the publishing, exchange and analysis of accounting reports and data, it is much easier for the companies to prepare and publish financial documents throughout different countries quickly, conveniently and efficiently. Companies can reduce time, effort and money that spent on generating financial reports and data with various report formats. Also, it can help companies to concurrently present their results in multiple national GAAPs (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) with a simplified process when preparing statements. It can help people outside the company can compare the results of different companies and to assess the state of the business using standard metrics, which is an important accounting principle. The improvement of efficiency in data transfer can surely bring advantages to the companies, and in turns more opportunities can be brought to the places.
Besides, the XBRL can improve the efficiency and transparency of the capital markets. People using XBRL can review the information comprehensively and change the corporate financial data before the submission, review and dissemination to others. In addition, it helps a company or a market to be more accessible. It supports customized readable tags to tag their reports in a more effective way by communicating with the investors directly. This can help to prevent cheats or overstate of the health of a business, which in turn build up the confident of investors. It can also help change the situation of providing fraud data in some Malaysian companies, and gain back the trust from investors as accurate reports are provided using XBRL.
Furthermore, the XBRL helps moving data into and out of the accounting systems. It is easy to manage a series of small businesses and combine the data and reports efficiently and effectively. It is a global language for accounting that specifies for the set up of reports, management and transfer of files. It is effortless for users to report the payables, receivables, and payroll, fixed assets, current assets and inventory in the accounting systems. It is useful to standardize the financial data formats, web services formats, extraction and analysis system, etc. With these supports, auditors can evaluate the costs of a company easily. Also, the communication between customers and companies will be improved by having better access to their own data. It helps allocating the resources better. More time can be used for preparing financial data and analyzing their performance and strategic planning.
As XBRL has many advantages on accounting, if companies in Malaysia were promoted to use this language, this will definitely help them in performing and doing business with other companies all over the world. It can also help to attract more investors to invest in Malaysia.
When foreign companies are making business, they face a great problem in sharing of information between different branches. Some important documents, such as financial statements and business reports, are necessary for making major managerial decisions, is necessary to have a common format to support exchange while XBRL can fill in this gap.
XBRL can help to reduce the disparity and try to promote the integration of the Malaysian standards with the mostly accepted international standard. It can facilitate the development of the professional sectors such as financial and accounting service of Malaysia. On the other hand, XBRL would help the foreign companies to have better operations in Malaysia because of the better information reporting and analysis of the common standard.
1.2 Problem statement
XBRL is an important phenomenon in today's business life. It will be more important in the future, because of many advantages it offers. Researchers are getting more interested to investigate this issue. Many researchers have conducted research to investigate the issue of XBRL among accountants, auditors and other stakeholders (Pinsker 2003, Troshani & Doolin 2007, Burnett, Friedman & Murthy 2006, Nel & Steenkamp).
While a number of researchers have been conducted to investigate the awareness and understanding of XBRL among accounting and finance practitioners, no study has been carried out in the context of education. Therefore this study attempts to investigate the awareness and understanding of XBRL among accounting and finance lecturers. Finding from this study is important as it will shed the light of awareness and understanding of XBRL among academicians, whom are the providers of the knowledge and skills.
For the future accountants and financial exports it is also important as Malaysia has not implemented XBRL at this moment; there is a reasonable expectation that Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM) will implement XBRL in the near future. This expectation can be seen from the growing use of XBRL in the global environment, including our neighboring country, Singapore, who has been using XBRL for a number of years already (Ken Low, 2009).
1.3 Research Questions
Main Research Question: What is the level of awareness and understanding of XBRL among accounting and finance lecturers in University Utara Malaysia (UUM)?
Specific Questions:
What are the factors that influence the awareness and understanding of XBRL among accounting and finance lecturers in UUM?
What are the perceptions of accounting and finance lecturers in UUM of the impact, relevance, benefits and risks of XBRL?
Do accounting and finance lecturers in UUM feel there is a need for education and information on XBRL?
1.4 Research Objectives
Main Research Objective:
To determine the level of awareness and understanding of XBRL among accounting and finance lecturers in UUM
Specific Objectives:
To identify the factors that influence the awareness and understanding of XBRL among accounting and finance lecturers in UUM
To investigate the perceptions of accounting and finance lecturers in UUM of the impact, relevance, benefits and risks of XBRL
To examine whether those accounting and finance lecturers in UUM feel there is a need for education and information on XBRL
1.5 Significance of the study
This study attempts to investigate the awareness and understanding of XBRL among accounting and finance lecturers. So far, the researcher has not seen any study about XBRL in Malaysia. Even at the university or college level, XBRL is not included in accounting and finance syllabus. The research in Australia, USA and South Africa showed unacceptable low level of awareness and understanding of XBRL (Nel & Steenkamp, 2008).
This research was conducted in an attempt to assess the level of awareness and understanding of XBRL among accounting and finance lecturers in UUM. As discussed before, XBRL has many benefits and impact on accountants, be it as auditors or as compliers or users of information. It is therefore vital for accounting and finance lecturers to be aware of and have knowledge of XBRL to teach their students.
It is hoped that the results of this study will assist accounting and finance lecturers and to determine strategies to aid the adoption and diffusion of XBRL in Malaysia. The findings about XBRL may give a useful feedback to accounting and finance lecturers. The useful feedback may assist them in teaching future accountants and financial esperts to develop their working skills that eliminate the manual transfer of data, which lead to fewer errors and higher quality data.
CHAPTER TWO
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
Using Internet is one of the powerful communication devices in our business life. The Internet is also considered worldwide considered to be the most efficient, cheapest, and fastest tool of communication. As a result, it is no surprise that companies are moving towards using the Internet as a communication device for the distribution of financial information. Companies are adopting new innovations, reporting systems for reporting their financial statements. One of these innovations is XBRL.
XBRL is a significant new technology for the electronic communication of business and financial data and as such is relevant to accounting and finance lecturers who are the key players for preparing future accountants and finance people. Following research in the USA, in which low levels of awareness of XBRL were identified (53.7% in 2006 and 59.7% in 2007) (Grgeta, 2006; McFarland, 2007); and also in South Africa, in which levels of awareness were identified (11% in 2008) (Nel & Steenkamp, 2008). The objectives of this study were to research the awareness, understanding, perceptions of and demand for knowledge on XBRL of accounting and finance lecturers in Malaysia.
XBRL ranks relatively high in importance as an AIS topic. It follows the topics of Database software and Data extraction and manipulation. The Strategic Uses of XBRL is the XML/XBRL topic that is considered most important by respondents and is covered by the majority of the accounting and finance faculty members (Ashutosh Deshmukh, Khondkar Karim, Jeffrey Romine & Robert W. Rutledge, 2006).
Other topics, such as Concept of Markups and Tags, preparing and validating XBRL reports, XBRL components, and XBRL software, are also considered important. However, the current coverage of topics is not in proportion with the perceived importance of these topics. Many of the topics considered most important receive little to no coverage in the accounting curricula. The researcher believes that the lack of faculty knowledge and lack of instructional materials are the primary factors responsible for these discrepancies.
A general consensus among the responding accounting and finance faculty members was that there was a severe lack of instructional materials on the XBRL topic. The most important teaching aids needed are XBRL tutorials, Case Materials, and coverage in textbooks. XBRL is evolving and changing at a rapid pace, and instructional materials that deal with the foundations are urgently needed (Ashutosh Deshmukh, Khondkar Karim, Jeffrey Romine & Robert W. Rutledge, 2006).
Since this area is complex, it is necessary that educational requirements of the educators are also adequately met. There have been a number of seminars and sessions offered to faculty members at various conferences. Apparently, these are not enough and more efforts are needed in this area.
2.2 Awareness of XBRL
Pinsker (2003) conducted a survey to determine the level of awareness of XBRL among internal and external auditors in the USA. He found a low level of knowledge and experience with XBRL among the respondents, who rated these at 1.71 and 1.24 respectively on a seven-point scale (one being "low" and 7 "high"). Pinsker was surprised at this low level of awareness because trade and business journals were carrying regular features on XBRL in 2003, four years after the introduction of XBRL in the USA.
Troshani and Doolin (2007) conducted a study among XBRL stakeholders such as, accounting firms and software developers in Australia, on the diffusion of XBRL and found that the attempts to increase awareness of XBRL had been ineffective. Early adopters of XBRL were unwilling to share their success stories in an effort to hold on to their competitive advantage of employing this new technology as long as possible. In an earlier study in 2005, Troshani and Doolin (2005) reported that the low level of adoption of XBRL in Australia could be attributed to a variety of factors:
The adoption strategy in Australia was ineffective.
There was a lack of education of employees by organizations who could potentially have been XBRL users.
There was a lack of resources available to XBRL Australia Ltd to promote XBRL.
There was an ongoing process of change in the accounting arena, which may have made the adoption of XBRL a lesser priority. This was exacerbated by the number of changes that were taking place in the XBRL taxonomy at that stage. Potential adopters were therefore more inclined to wait until the accounting standards and the XBRL taxonomies had stabilized.
There was limited software support available for XBRL, leading to potential difficulty in implementing XBRL.
Shortly before the Securities and Exchange Commission announced its commitment to the future use of XBRL, Grant Thornton LLP, the USA-based accounting firm, commissioned a survey in 2006 containing a small number of questions on XBRL. It found that 53.7% of senior finance executives were aware of XBRL and 91.4% believed that the accounting profession had not made the benefits of XBRL sufficiently widely known (Grgeta, 2006). Grant Thornton LLP repeated the survey in 2007, and the awareness of XBRL increased only to 59.7%, with 85.07% of the respondents still feeling that the dissemination of knowledge on XBRL in the accounting industry was inadequate (McFarland, 2007).
Similarly, the international association of investment professionals, the CFA Institute (2007a), found that 59% of its members were not aware of XBRL, but those who were aware of it, considered it to be a useful tool in their analyses of the financial information of companies.
2.3 Perceptions for using XBRL
Pinsker and Wheeler (2007) conducted a study on the perceptions of non-professional investors of XBRL. Two groups of MBA students carried out an assignment on the analysis of financial statements, with one group using XBRL-based information and technology and the other conducting the more traditional paper-based analysis. The participants perceived the XBRL-enabled analysis of financial statements to be more effective and efficient. The participants also perceived the companies that make XBRL information available to be more effective and efficient. They noted that users' perceptions were positively affected when they were provided with an example of the uses of XBRL and of practical experience of XBRL.
According to the respondents in Pinkster's (2003) study, the benefits of XBRL of, say, effectiveness and efficiency, would occur in practice. Pinsker recommended that XBRL International should increase its efforts to make the potential benefits more widely known among the future user of XBRL. He also placed the onus on the shoulders of auditors to educate them on the issue of XBRL.
As discussed earlier, XBRL is extensible and can be modified. However, 66% of the respondents in the survey by the CFA Institute (2007a) felt that the ability to modify the standard taxonomy should be limited, while 25% felt that modifications should be prohibited (CFA Institute 2007b).
It would seem that XBRL is currently not a well-known innovation internationally, but that there are positive perceptions of it. The current study investigates this matter in a Malaysia context.
CHAPTER THREE
3.0 HYPOTHESIS DEVELOPMENT AND METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
The last chapter has reviewed the prior studies that have been carried out in different countries related to awareness and understanding of XBRL. This chapter presents a theoretical framework to determine the relationship between the awareness of XBRL among accounting and finance lecturers in Malaysia as a dependent variable and IT knowledge as an independent variable.
3.2 Research Theoretical Framework
Independent Variables Dependent Variable
The awareness of XBRL among Accounting and Finance lecturers in Malaysia
IT knowledge of Accounting and Finance lecturers
Figure (1): research model.
3.3 IT knowledge of accounting and finance lecturers and the awareness of XBRL
IT knowledge of accounting and finance lecturers also plays great role for the awareness of XBRL. Because they are the one who are going to prepare the future professionals. IT knowledge of lecturers play key role in this field. A new job is created in requiring companies to file financials using XBRL. Someone, whether it is the external auditor or an outside consulting firm, needs to attest to the accuracy of the data tagging. If companies are not using the tags correctly then the data is inconsistent and not comparable across companies. Providing comparable and consistent information are critical factors for the success of XBRL.
This attestation engagement is a negative aspect for the filing company because it is an extra expense that the company will have to incur to file its financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). It is also an extra burden on the audit firms because they will all be required to have adequate knowledge of XBRL since it will be used in SEC filings. Even with adequate knowledge, accountants may still disagree on the accuracy of the tagging of certain data elements (Burnett, 2006).
H1: There is a relationship between IT knowledge of accounting and finance lecturers and the awareness of XBRL.
3.4 Measurement of Variables
3.4.1 Dependent variable
This study has one independent variable i.e. the awareness of XBRL among accounting and finance lectures in Malaysia. This variable is defined as the number of lecturers that are using XBRL. For the purpose of this study, two types of respondents have been identified to measure the awareness of XBRL. They are accounting lecturers and finance lecturers. The total score of the awareness of XBRL would range 5 point Likert scale from "1" (which is "low") to "5" (which is high).
3.4.2 Independent Variable
3.4.2.1 IT knowledge of accounting and finance lecturers
Following Pinsker (2003), this study measures IT knowledge of accountants by group of knowledgeable and experienced with IT of the business personnel. IT knowledge: measurement of this concept based on a five-point scale. The respondents were asked to rate their knowledge of eight categories of technologies to indicate the extent of knowledge for each technology using a five-point scale where 1 = No Knowledge to 5=Extensive Knowledge.
3.5 Data collection
The sample of this study comprises accounting and finance lecturers in UUM. It is at January 2010, there are 250 accounting and finance lecturers at the College of Business, university Utara Malaysia.
Prior to the several surveys the draft questionnaire was pre - tested with three lecturers to ensure the content validity. Based on feedbacks received, the questionnaire was further refined, among others, the wordings and sentences structure of several questions included in the questionnaire.
Online questionnaire was used to collect the data from the respondents for this purpose, email explaining the purpose of the study and also web link to the survey was sent to the respondents in February 2010. After a period of month and three reminders, 49 respondents responded to the survey. The answers represent a response rate of 20%.
3.5.1 Response rate
The 49 responses received were fewer than would have been ideal, but the researchers decided to continue with the research and analysis of results for the following reasons:
In spite of the low response rate, 49 was still a sufficient basis for preliminary conclusions.
This was an exploratory study and the results would therefore indicate future actions to raise awareness, regardless of the response rate achieved.
Since XBRL is relatively new technology in terms of widespread use, this might lead to a low level of awareness. Because of this, it was anticipated at the start of the study that a non-response bias might exist with respect to potential respondents who did not know of XBRL and who would therefore not be interested in participating in the survey. While content of the email deeply explain the purpose of the survey, it is possible that a considerable number of people (201) who received the e-mail did not open or read it.
Previous research of this type conducted by Pinsker also had an extremely low response rate, with only 17 usable responses in the sample (Pinsker, 2003). Likewise, Troshani and Doolin (2005) based their conclusions on 11 interviews. Nel and Steenkamp (2008) also had a very low response rate 208 (2.2%).
CHAPTER FOUR
4.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Demographics
This section discusses questions relating to the respondents' demographic information.
Figure 1a shows the position of the respondents. It is evident that large numbers of respondents were lecturers (65%) and senior lecturers (21%). Other respondents were employed in Professors (3%) and Associated Professors (8%). The average years as an academician are 10.53 years.
Figure 1b shows that the area of expertise of the respondents specialized in Accounting Information System (29%), Financial Accounting (23%) which is higher than the other areas and finance (18%) while the remaining respondents specialize in other accounting discipline such as taxation, auditing and management accounting.
Qualification of the lecturers was presented in table 1a and table 1b. Table 1a showed that majority of the respondents have master degree (79%), while remaining respondents have doctorate degree level. Results in table 1b indicated that 55% of the lecturers received their highest degree from local universities while the remaining respondents from overseas universities.
The findings with respect to the industry experience and professional qualification of the lecturers were presented in Table 1c, Table 1d and Table 1e. Table 1c showed that only 47% of the respondents have industry experience. Table 1d showed only 19 respondents have professional qualification.
Figure 1a: Position of the lecturers
Figure 1b: Teaching area of the lecturers
Table 1a: Qualification of lecturers
Frequency
Percent
MASTER DEGREE
38
79.2
DOCTORATE DEGREE
10
20.8
Total
48
100.0
Missing System
1
Total
49
Table 1b: Qualification place of lecturers
Frequency
Percent
LOCAL UNIVERSITIES
27
55.1
OVERSEAS UNIVERSITIES
22
44.9
Total
49
100.0
Table 1c: Industry experience of the lecturers
Frequency
Percent
YES
23
46.9
NO
26
53.1
Total
49
100.0
Table 1d: Professional qualification of the lecturers
Frequency
Percent
YES
19
38.8
NO
30
61.2
Total
49
100.0
Table 1e: Professional qualification type of the lecturers
Frequency
Percent
CPA
6
31.6
ACCA
1
5.3
CMA
2
10.5
OTHER
10
52.6
Total
19
100.0
Table 1f: Experience of the lecturers
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
YEARS OF LECTURE
47
10.53
4.54
YEARS OF INDUSTRY EXP
24
5.33
10.43
Valid N (list wise)
22
4.2 Awareness of XBRL
The respondents were requested to rate their awareness of XBRL before this survey. Brief description of XBRL was given in the introduction to the questionnaire as it was necessary to set parameter "before this survey". The results are presented in table 2a.
Table 2a: Awareness of XBRL before the survey
Frequency
Percent
I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF IT
12
24.5
I HAVE HEARD OF IT BUT DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS ABOUT
27
55.1
I HAVE HEARD OF IT AND FULLY AWARE ABOUT IT
10
20.4
Total
49
100.0
The majority of respondents (75.5%) had heard of XBRL prior to the survey. However, only 27% (10 out of 37) of them are fully aware of XBRL. The majority of accounting and finance lecturers were therefore did not aware of XBRL at the time of the survey.
Part 1 of the questionnaire contained a question measuring the respondents' eagerness to investigate XBRL in the near future. A brief description and benefits of XBRL given in the introduction section as this question intend to measure the perceived importance of XBRL to the respondents who might previously have been unaware of XBRL.
Table 2b: Will you investigate XBRL in the near future because of this survey?
Will investigate further
Will not investigate further
Total
Was aware
25%
4%
29%
Was not aware
44%
27%
71%
Total
69%
31%
100%
Only 31% of the respondents indicated that they would not investigate XBRL further, compared to 69% (44%/71%), who would investigate XBRL further, even though they had not been aware of XBRL before the survey. This clearly shows that although the respondents were generally not aware of XBRL before the survey, they perceived the concept of XBRL technology to be important to them.
4.3 IT knowledge and XBRL awareness
This section presents an analysis of the relationship between IT knowledge of Accounting and Finance lecturers and awareness and understanding of XBRL using a one-way ANOVA. The main aim of conducting the one-way ANNOVA is to examine whether there is significant differences in term of IT knowledge of the lecturers and awareness and understanding of XBRL.
IT knowledge of the accounting and finance lecturers is measured based on eight general technologies. Table 3a showed mean value of the accounting and finance lecturers' IT knowledge using 5 point Likert scale (1=low, 5=high).
Table 3a: IT knowledge of the lecturers
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
WORD PROCESSING KNOWLEDGE
49
4.55
0.71
ELECTRONIC SPREADSHEETS KNOWLEDGE
49
4.29
0.76
ELECTRONIC PRESENTATIONS KNOWLEDGE
49
4.45
0.71
E-MAIL KNOWLEDGE
49
4.47
0.71
INTERNET KNOWLEDGE
49
4.47
0.71
ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE KNOWLEDGE
49
3.41
1.24
TAX RETURN PREPARATION SOFTWARE KNOWLEDGE
49
3.10
1.31
GENERALIZED AUDIT SOFTWARE KNOWLEDGE
48
2.33
1.02
AvgITK
48
3.8880
0.65
Valid N (listwise)
48
The average IT knowledge among the responding lecturers is 3.89 which can be considered as good. General office applications such as word processing, electronic spreadsheets, electronic presentations, email and Internet technologies have the highest rating, with mean value above 4.0. More specialized technologies such as taxation, accounting and auditing had lower mean value, less than 3.5.
Then, in order to examine the relationship between level of IT knowledge and XBRL awareness, ANOVA was carried out for this purpose, respondents are categorized into three groups:
Never heard of XBRL
Heard but not aware
Heard and aware
The result of the one-way ANOVA for the awareness of XBRL is presented in the Table 3b. The table summarizes the mean value of the awareness of XBRL indicators and the statistical information of the one-way ANOVA to assist the research in deciding whether or not there is a significant difference between IT knowledge and awareness. Table 3b shows that there are no significant different between IT knowledge of the lecturers and awareness of XBRL.
However, detail observation of the mean value of the three groups show that these who are aware of XBRL have the highest mean value of IT knowledge compared to the other two groups. A significant F value in a one-way ANOVA tells the population means are probably not all equal. However, it does not tell which pairs of groups appear to have different means.
Table 3b: The relationship between IT knowledge and awareness of XBRL
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF IT
12
3.61
0.45
I HAVE HEARD OF IT BUT DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS ABOUT
26
3.93
0.43
I HAVE HEARD OF IT AND FULLY AWARE ABOUT IT
10
4.11
1.14
TOTAL
48
3.89
0.65
4.4 IT knowledge and XBRL understanding
The result of the one-way ANOVA for the understanding of XBRL is presented in the Table 4a. The table summarizes the mean value of the understanding of XBRL indicators and the statistical information of the one-way ANOVA to assist the research in deciding whether or not there is a significant difference between IT knowledge and understanding of XBRL.
Table 3b shows that there are no significant different between IT knowledge of the lecturers and understanding of XBRL. Even though the result is not significant, it is observed that the mean value of IT knowledge of those group that fully understand XBRL have the highest mean value compared to other two groups.
Table 4a: The relationship between IT knowledge and understanding of XBRL
AvgITK
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
I WAS AWARE OF XBRL BUT DID NOT UNDERSTAND THE BASIC CONCEPT
21
3.8274
0.73
I UNDERSTAND THE BASIC CONCEPTS OF XBRL.
11
4.0909
0.58
I UNDERSTAND FULLY WHAT XBRL IS ABOUT.
2
4.7500
0.18
Total
34
3.9669
0.70
Table 4b: One-way ANOVA
AvgITK
Sum of Squares
df
Mean Square
F
Sig.
Between Groups
1.804
2
0.9
2.0
0.16
Within Groups
14.14
31
0.46
Total
15.95
33
4.5 XBRL in Education
Respondents were asked about their perception toward the relevance of XBRL in the teaching of accounting and finance related subjects using a five-point scale (1=Not relevant; 5=Highly relevant). The mean value for each area as shown in the table 4.b indicate that respondents perceived XBRL are more relevant for Accounting Information System, Financial Accounting, Finance and Auditing subjects (all with mean value more than 3.5)
Table 4c: The relevance of XBRL to the teaching subjects
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING-RELATED SUBJECTS
33
3.73
1.07
MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING-RELATED SUBJECTS
34
3.21
0.95
AUDITING-RELATED SUBJECTS
34
3.53
0.96
TAXATION-RELATED SUBJECTS
34
3.29
0.87
ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEM-RELATED SUBJECTS
33
3.97
1.05
FINANCE-RELATED SUBJECTS
33
3.64
0.82
Respondents were asked their perception toward the integration level of XBRL in the teaching of accounting and finance related subjects using a five-point scale (1=Not integrated; 5=Highly integrated). The mean value for each area as shown in the table 4.c indicate that respondents perceived XBRL are higher integration level of Accounting Information System subject (mean value more than 3.5)
Table 4d: The integration level of XBRL to the teaching subjects
N
Mean
Std. Deviation
FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING-RELATED SUBJECTS
31
3.06
1.263
MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING-RELATED SUBJECTS
31
2.81
1.195
AUDITING-RELATED SUBJECTS
31
3.06
1.237
TAXATION-RELATED SUBJECTS
30
2.90
1.185
ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEM-RELATED SUBJECTS
30
3.50
1.167
FINANCE-RELATED SUBJECTS
31
2.97
1.224
CHAPTER FIVE
5.0 DISCUSSIONS, SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
The aim of this study is to explore the level of awareness understanding of XBRL among academicians. The samples of the study contain 49 accounting and finance lecturers of College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM).
It then examines the perception of respondents with regards to the relevance of XBRL in the teaching of accounting and finance subjects. It also examines the level of integration of XBRL in the teaching subjects. Finally, it examines the impact of IT knowledge on the awareness and understanding of XBRL among academic respondents.
Findings from the study show that, there is a little knowledge among the accounting and finance lecturers in UUM regarding the awareness and understanding of XBRL. This is explained by the results found from the survey where 75% of respondents said "they have heard" of XBRL however, only 27% of them are fully aware of this technology.
Overall, the finding suggests that the level of XBRL among the responding academician is still very low. This finding support the similar result found from previous studies. The previous results from Pinsker (2003) indicated that many accountants and auditors have low knowledge or experience with XBRL and do not perceive the intended benefits XBRL usage provides. While, the result from Nel and Steenkamp (2008) showed that the majority of chartered accountants in South Africa are currently unaware of XBRL and few fully understand it.
Respondents perceived XBRL are more relevant for Accounting Information System, Financial Accounting, Finance and Auditing subjects. All these subjects mean value are more than 3.5 (five point Likert scale, 1=Not relevant; 5=Highly relevant). Findings from the integration level of XBRL showed that only Accounting Information System subject is more integrated (mean value 3.97) than other subjects.
IT knowledge of the respondents' is the main factor for awareness and understanding of XBRL. Survey results showed that respondents are more famous with general office application (mean value is more than 4.0). They have a little knowledge about accounting software, mean value less than 3.0.
The given discussions above showed that accounting and finance lecturers were not familiar with accounting and finance software. Lecturers who are teaching Accounting Information System subject are more aware about XBRL than other accounting and finance lecturers.
The study is limited to the accounting and finance lecturers. And also, this research is only for UUM lecturers. This study is taking a sample not for accountants, auditors, stakeholders, etc. It is taking just for accounting and finance lecturers. It will highlight some important part of teaching area.
As the previous researchers studied (e.g. Troshani & Doolin, 2007), the issue identified at the outset was the relative youth of this new technology. Therefore, the researcher was aware that a low response rate might be achieved, as was experienced by Pinsker (2003) and Nel and Steenkamp (2008). Owning to the significant contribution that XBRL could make to accountants, auditors, stakeholders, and other users, it was decided to continue with the research in spite of these possibilities.
All accounting and finance lecturers are assumed to be aware and understand of XBRL for cost saving, faster, more reliable and more accurate handling of data, improved analysis and in better quality of information and decision-making in their accounting and finance students' future job.
For future research, it is being suggested for increasing the sample size in order to get more accurate result for the study. Since, this study only focuses on the awareness among accounting and finance lecturers in UUM, hence it also suggested extending the scope of respondents including the accounting and finance lecturers all over Malaysia, accountants and auditors in small and big firms. Besides that, the future research should be focused on the other area such as extend the study to determine the factors (i.e; social factors) or the determinants that will influence to the level of awareness and understanding XBRL.
