The Effect Of Ixbrl Formatted Financial Statements On The Effectiveness Of Managers' Decisions When Making Inter-Firm Comparisons

Following the SEC's mandate for iXBRL formatted financial filings, we experimentally investigate the effects of iXBRL filings and tag type (matching or non-matching) on managers' decisions. iXBRL filings facilitate information search and information match by allowing users to view XBRL data in HTML filings, while XBRL filings facilitate information search only because they do not include this integration with human-readable HTML filings. Matching tags consistently tag data across firms and disclosures, which should facilitate inter-firm comparisons and improve decision making relative to non-matching tags. Drawing on cognitive load theory, we find that managers make more (less) effective decisions when presented with financial information formatted in iXBRL (XBRL) and when tags match (do not match). Moderated-mediation analysis reveals that managers' cognitive load mediates the relationship between iXBRL disclosure format and decision effectiveness, but only for non-matching tags. We discuss implications for practice and research.