The role of characteristics of 'upper echelons' and demographics of organizations in predicting the likelihood of SBR adoption in Australia

The Australian government's XBRL-derived reporting facility called Standard Business Reporting (SBR) went 'live' to listed companies in 2010. This paper investigates the demographic factors of both the mangers and the organizations that affect the likelihood of SBR adoption in Australia. Drawing primarily on Upper Echelons theory (UET), six characteristics or demographic factors of the managers and their organizations are identified and tested to provide insights to likely adopters of SBR and unlikely adopters of SBR. Self-administered questionnaire method was used to collect data on the respondents from top 500 listed companies in Australia. It is found that demographic factors are not useful in explaining likelihood of SBR adoption in Australia; only one factor, namely experience of the upper echelons, passed the significance test. Implications of such finding are discussed.