Internet reporting: Current trends and trends by 2010

This paper reports the views of the immediate trends and trends by 2010 in Internet‐based financial reporting provided by 19 experts in accounting and/or the Internet. Specifically, this paper reports these expert's predictions on what will and will not happen, when it will happen and what will be different between these two time periods. The predictions were obtained through two stages: an open ended questionnaire and a structured Likert scale questionnaire which was subsequently constructed. According to our experts, many predictions found in the prior literature will materialise (such as the Internet will become increasingly important in disseminating corporate information). However, the experts also rejected some prior forecasts (such as free access to disaggregated corporate data and real‐time reporting). Many aspects of financial reporting will remain the same between the two time periods although there will be significant differences. Our experts portrayal of the future of Internet reporting can be seen as a ladder. Issues of importance at the lower rungs of the ladder are more basic (such as the survival of the hardcopy reports); while at the higher rungs of the ladder issues are more complex (for instance, the possibility of real‐time reporting and continuous auditing).