TR8-08 Will XBRL Improve Corporate Governance? A Framework for Enhancing Governance Decision Making Using Interactive Data

Presenter: Michael Alles

This paper puts forward the proposition that XBRL does indeed have the potential to significantly improve corporate governance. But it will only do so if those advocating XBRL understand the value chain of information of governance players and establish the role that XBRL can play in driving better governance decisions. XBRL has to be more than a distribution mechanism for data or facilitating technology. What must be taken advantage of is XBRLs capability to enable data to be disaggregated and reformatted in a way that can lead to new insights and decision relevant knowledge. Putting that potential into practice requires an XBRL taxonomy model that is data based than is the document based focus of the current specifications, as well as a flexible rendering system. Developments in XBRL GL and XDT taxonomies are the most promising as far as enhancing governance decision making using interactive data is concerned.