Industrial firms and the power of mission

International Journal of Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Science, 2020

After two decades of research, the clear relationship between a mission statement and a firm's performance is not found yet. Past research has demonstrated the meaningful relationship between the mission statement and the performance. Some of these studies, however, have indicated there is no meaningful relationship between the mission statement and the performance. The aim of this paper is to identify the relationship between the mission statement components and the performance components. Moreover, it tries to help managers to state high quality of the mission statement in their firms. Six-component mission statement was developed to measure the completeness of firm's mission statement, and the BSC was used so as to measure the firms' performance. The BSC includes four dimensions: financial, customer, internal process and learning and growth. In this research, field research technique was applied, and questionnaires were used in order to gather data. The statistical population was 35 firms. Totally, 1400 questionnaires were passed out, 40 questionnaires in each firm, out of which 1230 questionnaires were returned. SPSS 18 was utilized to analyze the data. Results indicated a significant positive relationship between the components of the mission statement and some of the performance components. The most significant positive relationship was found between the purpose and the financial component, and the least significant positive relationship was found between the vision and the internal presses. In addition, the financial dimension was related to the all the mission components. As a result, improving j7biscmxi8firm mission statement will improve financial performance, and strategic managers should devote extreme attention to this issue.

International Journal of Managerial and Financial Accounting, 2012

The purpose of this research was to explore the components in the content of mission statements and investigate the impact of such statements on company performance. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used to explore the mission statements and their impact on performance respectively. Data were obtained from the companies listed in Colombo Security Exchange in Sri Lanka. The results revealed that self-concept, concern for survival, and company products and services are predominant in the contents of mission statements. Moreover, considerable attention is paid to include a staff/employee component in the contents of current mission statements. Finally, it was found that the presence of a mission statement has no impact on company performance. Therefore, managers must be aware that these dominating components when crafting their mission statements.

Journal of Management Studies, 1998

This paper examines the relationship between mission statements and ®rm performance using a sample of 136 large Canadian organizations. Previous writings suggest that mission statements are essential for superior organizational performance results. However, there is little empirical evidence to support this claim. The data from the present study demonstrate that mission statements and some of their speci®c characteristics are selectively associated with higher levels of organizational performance. The paper concludes with several propositions to guide future research.

Management Decision, 2001

A relationship between mission and organizational performance was modeled by drawing on previous research. The model was tested with data from 83 large Canadian and US organizations. We found that mission statements can affect financial performance, however, not as one might have anticipated initially. Several mediating elements were observed to exist. For instance,`c ommitment to the mission'' and the``degree to which an organization aligns its internal structure, policies and procedures with its mission'' were both found to be positively associated with`e mployee behavior''. It was this latter variable which was observed, in turn, to have the most direct relationship with financial performance.

International journal of contemporary …, 2003

Journal of Management & Organization, 2018

A mission statement is a widely used strategic tool that emphasises an organisation’s uniqueness and identity. It was in the early 1980s that academics, managers, and consultants recognised the need for explicitly formulating a mission statement in organisations. Since then, mission statements have remained as a popular strategic tool in organisations. This article conducts a systematic literature review to synthesise research on mission statements. The analysis of the 53 articles selected includes a bibliometric and content analysis. According to their perspective, the works selected were grouped into four thematic areas: (1) mission statement development, (2) mission statement components, (3) mission impact on employees, and (4) mission impact on performance. The overreaching conclusion is that mission statements are widely used in practice but poorly researched in theory. Most articles adopt a managerial phenomenon-based strand, lacking a deep theoretical foundation. The article ...

2006

The study at hand analyses the research strategies applied in empirical articles addressing the concept of mission statements. We systematically scanned eight computerized databases in order to delimit the field of empirical mission statement research. This scanning process resulted in 63 articles. Consequently the detected articles were analyzed by means of a code sheet. The code sheet comprised five general sets of research strategy characteristics: primary data location and means of data collection, level of analysis, (3) sample characteristics, (4) type of analysis / analytic techniques and (5) time frame. The results of the content analysis enabled us to assess the validity and robustness of research conducted within the field of mission statement research. Suggestions are made to increase the level of validity of future research. We claim that the results of the study at hand will contribute to the maturation of the field. They will provide insights into the possible future development of mission statement research methodology and facilitate the transition of the field from predominantly descriptive to empirically grounded.

Long Range Planning, 1994

HOLISTICA – Journal of Business and Public Administration, 2019

A mission statement has a significant meaning as the initial and essential step in a company’s strategic planning process. Previous studies have pointed out the necessity of monitoring and longitudinal study of corporate mission statements as they should be continuously revised against changes in companies’ strategies and business environment. This study aims to shed light on what types of strategies and values are currently highlighted in companies’ mission statements in comparison with the findings of a well-known previous study. Therefore, this study conducted a content analysis of 491 Fortune 500 companies’ mission statements. As a result, we found that “philosophy” is mostly highlighted and “profitability” is not emphasized in contemporary companies’ mission statements. Compared to the past study, these findings imply that there have been dramatic changes in the content of corporate mission statements. Besides, this study divided 491 Fortune 500 companies into two groups, high ...

2005

A relationship between mission and organizational performance was modeled by drawing on previous research. The model was tested with data from 83 large Canadian and US organizations. We found that mission statements can affect financial performance, however, not as one might have anticipated initially. Several mediating elements were observed to exist. For instance,`c ommitment to the mission'' and the``degree to which an organization aligns its internal structure, policies and procedures with its mission'' were both found to be positively associated with`e mployee behavior''. It was this latter variable which was observed, in turn, to have the most direct relationship with financial performance.