Improving Investor Communications and Analysis via Standardization

Over time, a market dialog of taxonomy extension best practices will improveconstituent communication and investor analysis and comparability assessments. A statedgoal/objective typically associated with the adoption of the Extensible Business ReportingLanguage (XBRL1 ) is the enhancement of information quality, specifically comparability.Terms often cited include 'Standard', 'Standardization' and 'Comparability'. This paper discussesthese three separate but related topics by clarifying common definitions, relationships, uses, andlimitations. The paper recognizes various comparability perceptions, and it demonstrates howXBRL enhances comparability and perhaps it takes it to a new level. Finally, the paper suggestscontinue dialog with market participants on best practices for further development of conceptsrelevant to enhancing comparability.