Interactive Data Visualization: New Directions for Accounting Information Systems Research

Abstract

Many companies today utilize interactive data visualization to present accounting information to external users on their investor relations websites and to internal users in applications such as enterprise resource planning, Balanced Scorecard, network security, and fraud detection systems. We develop a taxonomy for examining the current state of interactive data visualization research related to accounting decision making. We organize our review around three themes: the relationship between task characteristics and interactive data visualization techniques, the relationship between decision maker characteristics and interactive data visualization techniques, and the impact of interactive data visualization techniques on decision processes and outcomes. The review categorizes relevant research, describes the research questions addressed, and suggests avenues for further research.

Performance implications of matching adaption and innovation cognitive style with explicit and tacit knowledge resources

“…Managers should be aware that some knowledge can be configured into more than one type of format. For example, interactive data visualization enables users to choose what format they prefer (Dilla et al, 2010). Of course, not all knowledge will have this flexibility but efforts made toward improving this flexibility benefit the organization in the long run.…”

Business information visualization intellectual contributions: An integrative framework of visualization capabilities and dimensions of visual intelligence

“…Dilla, Janvrin et al [40] identified a series of cross-discipline research articles focused on interactive data visualization building the evidence of interactivity, information navigation and selection impact on decision-making process and outcome. They also identified a series of mostly marketing research suggesting benefits of interactive visualization: allow decision makers to navigate through complex data sets and decision accuracy through considerations of multiple factors, increase control over the data flow, enable the restructuring of the information environment, and lower the cognitive cost.…”

“…It has been noted [33] that this body of research resulted in formulation of Cognitive Fit Theory [63][64][65], that suggests the importance of fit between the problem representation and the problem-solving task in achieving effective performance [33,40,54,[66][67][68][69]. Cognitive Fit Theory is a native IS theory that came about as a reaction to the inability to rationalize the findings from previous empirical research [66] that compared decision performance in simple tasks across tabular and graphical presentation formats.…”

Comments by the Auditing Standards Committee of the Auditing Section of the American Accounting Association on the PCAOB Rulemaking Docket Matter No. 34: PCAOB Release No. 2011-003, Concept Release on Possible Revisions to PCAOB Standards Related to Reports on Audited Financial Statements.

“…Although the mandate explicitly states that public accountants are not required to provide assurance on these XBRL-related documents, early research (i.e., Bartley et al 2009Bartley et al , 2011Debreceny et al 2010;Weirich and Harrast 2010;Du et al 2011) finds that several documents contain errors. Further, new interactive data visualization software allows for the presentation of individual values from the financial statements (Dilla et al 2010;Janvrin et al 2011). Without assurance that these tags are appropriately mapped to each value, investors may be misled.…”