Sustainability reporting through XML- and XBRL-based approaches

The paper moving from literature background and doctrinal sources recognition analyzes the possibility of better addressing the firms’ sustainability (or social) reporting process using XML- and XBRL-based tools. The plan of the present study is to first analyze the current trends regarding the main internationally recognized frameworks that are specifically related to advanced sustainability reporting (GRI, 2006) and stakeholder engagement (ISEA, 1999, 2003) and the existing efforts to design an XBRL taxonomy for sustainability reporting (GRI, 2007; Isenmann et al., 2007; Isenmann and Marx Gómez, 2009). Subsequently, the emerging principles specifically referred to the application of XML and XBRL to the design and the use of sustainability reports is examined. The goal is to verify the possibility of a convergence between the frameworks issued in the field of social accounting and reporting and the frameworks of the abovementioned emerging digital approaches (Bonsón et al., 2009). Moreover, another purpose is to investigate if there is room for improvement in the corporate social reporting and in the dialogue with stakeholders using these mark-up languages and other technologies, like Web 2.0 (DiPiazza and Eccles, 2002; Isenmann et al., 2007; Isenmann and Marx Gómez, 2009). Finally, the study aims to highlight if XML- and XBRL-based sustainability reporting allows to solve some crucial open questions, already present at the stage of web-based social disclosure (Unerman and Bennett, 2004; Isenmann and Marx Gómez, 2009), such as the possibility that sustainability reporting may be regulated by law or by accounting principles rather than to be chosen as an option, the individuation of appropriate methods of measurement and the degree of stakeholder engagement in the web-based social reporting and auditing process.[...]