Does one size fit all? Evidence on XBRL adoption and 10‐K filing lag

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines how XBRL adoption is associated with 10‐K filing timeliness. Using a sample of 10‐K filings from 2007 to 2016, we find that 10‐K filing lag decreases for Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 accelerated filers following the XBRL mandate. For Tier 3 smaller reporting companies, however, filing lag increases significantly in the post‐XBRL period. Results from a difference‐in‐differences specification as well as using an alternative measure of filing timeliness produce similar inferences. We then investigate factors associated with the delay. We find that 10‐K filing lag increases with XBRL filing complexity, whereas the deployment of a more experienced service provider can mitigate the lag. Overall, this study provides evidence that XBRL mandate improves preparer efficiency for most firms; however, our finding that the effect for smaller reporting companies goes in the opposite direction leads to the question whether XBRL can be viewed as a one‐size‐fits‐all solution to financial reporting.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 19 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.