High tech firms: Does mission matter?

Abstract

What role does a mission statement play in the context of high tech organizations? And what is the nature of the relationship between a high tech company's formal mission statement and performance? Traditionally, the mission statement has been regarded as the essential starting point in designing an effective and successful strategy for virtually any firm. However, the role and impact of mission statements within high tech firms has not received any significant empirical consideration in the literature of the past twenty years. This is somewhat surprising since the importance of high tech firms to an economy's future growth is well accepted. Moreover, it is almost impossible to pick up a standard text on strategic planning without some mention of the virtues and importance of having a well developed mission statement. At the same time, there is much literature and research which confirms the existence of unique and special organizational arrangements for high tech (as opposed to low tech) companies. Thus, if mission is important to firm success, one would also expect to find significant differences in the content and characteristics of mission statements between high tech and other corporate situations. The current study reports the results of a survey on the use and performance impact of mission statements among a group of high-tech and low-tech companies. The research confirms that there are important and major differences in the content of the mission statements between these two groups. However, for high tech firms, differences in mission statements do not necessarily translate into variations in financial performance. The research also demonstrates that significant differences exist between high and low tech companies in terms of the factors “driving” the mission statements. These drivers, in turn, sometimes bear somewhat significantly on firm performance but, more critically, impact the behavior of organizational members. The research, therefore, confirms an emerging notion that mission statements primarily influence the behavior of firm members and it is the organizational members' behaviors which, in turn, impact financial performance.