The emergence of ,IR. as developed by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) is traced from antecedent concepts of 'integrated reporting' and earlier voluntary corporate reporting initiatives. The paper uses actor network theory and its conceptions of detour, affordance and laboratory to examine the development of ,IR. while still controversial and where meanings remained open and malleable to the inscription of interests from a wide coalition of actors. The programme of action is interpreted through interviews with key individuals, official documents, publications and integrated reports circulated by the IIRC. The analysis highlights the imperatives of private standard setters and indicates how integrated reporting corporate governance regulation in South Africa provided a laboratory prototype for reshaping the UK 'Connected Reporting' initiative into the IIRC ,IR. framework. The analysis reveals important detours and the associated affordances made during the development of ,IR.: (a) the repositioning of ,IR. in the corporate reporting infrastructure to ensure that it did not usurp the pre-existing frameworks of supporting actors; and (b) the specification of providers of financial capital as the intended reporting audience to ensure that it could meet the interests of those actors seeking a solution for more entity-specific, communicative, 'de-cluttered' corporate reporting.

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Purpose Corporate reporting infrastructure and communication are being transformed by the emergence of digital technologies. A key element of the digital accounting infrastructure underpinning international corporate reporting is the IFRS Taxonomy, a digital representation of international accounting standards that is required by firms to produce digital corporate reports. The purpose of this paper is to trace the development, governance and adoption of the IFRS Taxonomy to highlight the implications for accounting practice and standard-setting. Design/methodology/approach The authors mobilise Actor Network Theory and a model of transnational standardisation to analyse the process surrounding the formation and diffusion of the IFRS Taxonomy as a legitimate “reference” of the IFRS Standards. The authors trace the process using interview, observation and documentary evidence. Findings The analysis shows that while the taxonomy enables IFRS-based reporting in the digital age, tensions and detours result in the need for a realignment of the perspectives of both accounting standard-setters and taxonomy developers that have transformative implications for accounting practice and standard-setting. Originality/value The study explains how and why existing accounting standards are transformed by technology inscriptions with reflexive effects on the formation and diffusion of accounting standards. In doing so, the paper highlights the implications that arise as accounting practice adapts to the digitalisation of corporate reporting.

This paper uses evidence gathered in two perception studies of Australasian and British accounting academics to reflect on aspects of the knowledge production system within accounting academe. We provide evidence of the representation of multiple paradigms in many journals that are scored by participants as being of high quality. Indeed most of the journals we surveyed are perceived by accounting academics as incorporating research from more than one paradigm. It is argued that this 'catholic' approach by journal editors and the willingness of many respondents in our surveys to score journals highly on material they publish from both paradigm categories reflects a balanced acceptance of the multi-paradigmatic state of accounting research. Our analysis is set within an understanding of systems of accounting knowledge production as socially constructed and as playing an important role in the distribution of power and reward in the academy. We explore the impact of our results on concerns emerging from the work of a number of authors who carefully expose localised 'elites'. The possibilities for a closer relationship between research emerging from a multi-paradigm discipline and policy setting and practice are also discussed. The analysis provides a sense of optimism that the broad constituency of accounting academics operates within an environment conducive for the exchange of ideas. That optimism is dampened by concerns about the impact of local 'elites' and the need for more research on their impact on accounting academe.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the process by which “analogue” corporate reports produced under a “paper paradigm” are translated into a machine language as required by digital reporting. The paper uses Austin and Searle’s linguistic speech act theory to examine how digitally translating reporting information into atomised data affects the infrastructure and practice of accounting. Design/methodology/approach Extensive interview and observation evidence focussed on the IFRS Foundation’s digital reporting project is analysed. An interpretive approach is informed by the concepts of L compatibility, illocution and perlocutionary acts which are drawn from speech act theory. Findings Two key sites of translation are identified. The first site concerns the translation of accounting standards, principles and practices into taxonomies for digital tagging. Controversies arise over the definition of accounting concepts in a site populated by accounting and IT-orientated experts. The second site of translation is in the routine production and dissemination of digital reports which impacts the L compatibility between preparers and users. Originality/value The paper highlights a previously unexplored field of translation in accounting and contributes a unique perspective that demonstrates that machine translation is no longer marginalised but is the “primary” text with effects on the infrastructure and practice of accounting. It extends speech act theory by applying it to the digital domain and in the context of translation between languages.