E-business Conflict Resolution: the Role of XBRL, the Next-generation Digital Language of Business Reporting

Conflict Resolution (an intervention aimed at alleviating or eliminating electronic discord through conciliation) as a business theme is more important than ever in today's fast paced world of e-business and globalization. The significance of an efficient financial reporting and the Internet in human lives cannot be understated. Investors and users of the Internet need accurate and reliable financial information that can be delivered promptly to help them make informed financial decisions. The Internet embodies the importance of technology, its role in resolving disputes, and its impact on the increasing globalization of business, information, and culture. XBRL means Extensible Business Reporting Language. It is an open specification which uses Extensible Markup Language (XML) based data tags to describe financial statements for both public and private companies. It uses accepted financial reporting standards and practices to exchange financial statements across all software and technologies, including the Internet. It is a twenty-first century digital business reporting language which allows software vendors, programmers, intermediaries in the information preparation and distribution process and end users who adopt it as a specification to enhance the creation, exchange, and comparison of business reporting information. This paper, using the secondary data methodology approach suitable for large expository research, presents the advent of the XBRL technology and framework, its history and why it is essential. It reveals the relationship between XBRL and emerging e-standards, highlights the XBRL as a vital support for e-business, and showcases the largest XBRL e-government project in the world. This research finds that XBRL streamlines the financial information supply chain that includes public and private companies, the accounting profession, data aggregators, the investment community and all other users of financial statements. Findings also show that XBRL offers several key benefits like technology independence, full interoperability, efficient preparation of financial statements and reliable extraction of financial information. This work recommends that organizations/investors in every industry, regulatory bodies, professional associations, government, and educational institutions must embrace the XBRL in order not to suffer obsolescence and uncompetitiveness.