XBRL Extension to the Financial Statement Notes: Field-based Evidence on Unlisted Companies

This paper aims at providing field-based evidence on actual benefits and costs arising from mandatory XBRL extension to financial statement notes for Italian unlisted companies. In pursuit of these objectives, we conduct interviews with Italian chartered accountants involved in the production of financial information. XBRL requirements for unlisted companies in Italy enable us to assess the effects of the mandatory XBRL extension to the notes separately from its adoption for financial statements. Results suggest that the main benefit of this extension lies in an increased comparability across firms. However, this transition has not increased the number of data disclosed. On the contrary, the taxonomy might make more difficult to include voluntary disclosures and relevant information such as the statement of cash flows, thus leading to less data available for users. Our findings have relevant implications for regulators, users, and companies as well.