Mission Statement Content Research Articles

Intellectual connections in mission statements scholarship: a future research agenda

PurposeThis study aims to explore the intellectual connections of mission statement research to identify the influential domains of source knowledge and emergent areas of research for future studies.Design/methodology/approachThe authors deployed bibliometric methods, namely, citation, co-citation and network analysis. The authors collected data from the Scopus and Web of Science databases and analyzed the connections of the most influential articles.FindingsThe authors identified four knowledge domains that informed the mission statements literature: guidance on mission statement development, the value of mission statements, mission statements and organizational issues, mission statement content and communication. And the authors spotted four opportunities for knowledge advancement based on theoretical frameworks, performance measures, content and context.Practical implicationsPractitioners should think beyond the immediate benefits of mission statements, such as performance and legitimacy improvement. Instead, they should focus on long-term benefits, information advantages and democratizing the development phase of mission statements.Originality/valueMission statements have attracted scholarly attention over the past 40 years. Despite the formation of a considerable body of knowledge, intellectual connections of mission statement research have been largely neglected. Previous studies had a narrow focus or insufficient coverage of the literature. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first full-scale bibliometric study on the intellectual connections of the mission statements literature.

Mission Statement Content and the Signaling of Institutional Performance: An Examination of Non-U.S. International Business Schools

The evolution and proliferation of business schools around the world have created significant competition in the space as an ever-growing number of institutions vie for world-class status. Part of ...

How Organizational Identity Affects Hospital Performance: Comparing Predictive Power of Mission Statements and Sector Affiliation

Organizational identity is an important concept in organizational theory, as it can contextualize the behavior of organizations and members. The literature presents divergent perspectives on organizational identity: some studies have characterized organizational identity as constrained by institutional forces, whereas others have contended it is socially constructed by organizational members. Studies have largely focused on the former perspective, measuring organizational identity by sector affiliation; the latter approach has rarely been empirically tested. Therefore, in addition to sector affiliation, this article proposes a different approach to operationalizing organizational identity by examining hospitals’ mission statements. The study also examines which of these dual forces have more predictive power regarding organizational performance. Together with hospitals’ sector affiliation, we test how the presence and frequency of mission statement language regarding access, cost, quality, or unique organizational values affect hospitals’ various performance metrics. Regression analyses with 172 acute hospitals in Florida reveal significant relationships between types of mission statement content, sectors, and performance indicators.

University Mission Statements and Sustainability Performance

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the relationship between university mission statements and sustainability practices by institutions of higher education. We examine mission statement constructs and the degree to which higher educational institutions meet specific sustainability criteria in line with the College Sustainability Report Card. Our sample consists of 347 universities from the Sustainable Endowment Institute's (2011) Green Report Card. Previous research suggests that mission statements are essential for superior organizational performance outcomes. We examine the relationship between university mission statement content and sustainability practices. Findings indicate that the greater the number of specific terms used in the university mission statements, the higher the statistical likelihood that those universities had higher sustainability ratings. Findings also indicate that private institutions and nonreligious‐affiliated institutions are more likely to include sustainability constructs in their mission statements than colleges and universities with religious affiliation and public institutions. Several propositions to guide future research are discussed.

Comparing Hospital Mission Statement Content in a Changing Healthcare Field

ABSTRACTMission statements are key elements of how an organization communicates its purpose and priorities to its community. This study considers how mission statements from Ohio, Florida, and Texas hospitals approach key concepts in healthcare – access, cost, and quality. It also considers the concept of community benefit, given its recent prevalence in policy changes.The analysis found quality represented within hospital mission statements at a rate of 65%, compared to 21% for access, 21% for cost, and 24% for community benefit. Investor-owned hospitals emphasize quality and cost at significantly higher rates while not-for-profit hospitals emphasize access and community benefit at significantly higher rates than other organization types.

Wildlife Conservation and Private Protected Areas: The Discrepancy Between Land Trust Mission Statements and Their Perceptions.

In 2010, land trusts in the U.S. had protected nearly 50 million acres of land, with much of it providing habitat for wildlife. However, the extent to which land trusts explicitly focus on wildlife conservation remains largely unknown. We used content analysis to assess land trust involvement in wildlife and habitat conservation, as reflected in their mission statements, and compared these findings with an organizational survey of land trusts. In our sample of 1358 mission statements, we found that only 17% of land trusts mentioned "wildlife," "animal," or types of wildlife, and 35% mentioned "habitat" or types. Mission statements contrasted sharply with results from a land trust survey, in which land trusts cited wildlife habitat as the most common and significant outcome of their protection efforts. Moreover, 77% of land trusts reported that at least half of their acreage protected wildlife habitat, though these benefits are likely assumed. Importantly, mission statement content was not associated with the percentage of land reported to benefit wildlife. These inconsistencies suggest that benefits to wildlife habitat of protected land are recognized but may not be purposeful and strategic and, thus, potentially less useful in contributing toward regional wildlife conservation goals. We outline the implications of this disconnect, notably the potential omission of wildlife habitat in prioritization schema for land acquisition and potential missed opportunities to build community support for land trusts among wildlife enthusiasts and to develop partnerships with wildlife conservation organizations.

Buried Accomplishments: Institutional Isomorphism in College Athletics Mission Statements

Despite suggestions that mission statements represent a strategic component of organizational communication, there has been little research of these documents in athletic departments at U.S. colleges and universities. The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between mission statement content and athletic department accomplishments in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I schools (N = 343). The content analysis of mission statements revealed that athletics missions do not differentiate accomplished from less accomplished athletic programs. Athletic departments with strong traditions of promoting the academic advancement of student-athletes, achieving gender equity, and complying with NCAA rules tend to reference these distinctions in the same way as departments with less favorable histories. Grounded in institutional theory, this article describes the external pressures toward sameness rather than differentiation in mission statement content. Implications for intercollegiate athletics and higher education are discussed.

The mission statement: organisational culture perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of mission statement contents and its function in guiding employee's behaviour from the organisational culture (OC) perspective. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a mixed method approach. The quantitative content analysis of mission statements was performed on a sample of 222 Slovenian companies. Mission statement's keywords were analysed with exploratory factor analysis. Advanced network analytic approaches such as PathFinder algorithm were utilised to obtain better understanding of interrelatedness of underlying mission components. Three interviews with the top managers were performed as well. Findings – The mission statement content analysis identified five associated organisations’ orientations: concern for stakeholders, orientation towards stability, orientation towards cooperation and innovation, and development and growth. The interviews confirm missions’ role in communicating the espoused or declared OC, although different approaches to achieve employees’ commitment to the organisation's mission can be identified in regard to the size of the organisation. Originality/value – The cultural approach to the analysis of mission statements confirms that the mission statements incorporate basic contents of OC. The methodology applied gives new possibilities in the research of OC perspective of strategic statements.

Mission Statement Content and Responsiveness to Stakeholders in Social Ventures

This study uses a stakeholder theory lens to examine the relationship between mission statement content and actions regarding stakeholder groups for social ventures. While prior research has found no significant relationship between content and actions concerning stakeholders for commercial firms, we find a significant relationship for social ventures. We further examine the relationship between the nature of the social venture’s customers (consumers or businesses) and social performance, finding no significant relationship. These findings contribute to emerging scholarship on social entrepreneurship, to the stakeholder salience framework of stakeholder theory, and to the literature investigating the antecedents of social performance.

Organizational Mission Statement Guidelines Revisited

This paper provides appropriate guidelines for writing organizational mission statements. A planning framework is presented as a reference point for seeing where a mission statement fits into the planning process. Examples are provided of guidelines typically recommended for use in writing a mission statement, and some samples of organization mission statements are presented in order to illuminate the variety of approaches used in practice. New guidelines for mission statement content are recommended.

A stakeholder perspective on mission statements: an international empirical study

Purpose – This study uses a stakeholder perspective to explain the content of mission statements, in particular the inclusion of stakeholder groups. The study uses stakeholder dependency theory and resource dependency theory to explain the content of mission statement. In line with this perspective, stakeholders in this study will be classified as either being resource providers, such as employees and customers, or non‐resource providers, such as the community and the environment. The primary aim of the study is to find evidence for the theoretical relationship between the importance of stakeholders to the company and the inclusion of stakeholder groups in the company's mission statement.Design/methodology/approach – The use of a large dataset with 490 observations enables a multivariate analysis of mission statement content, focusing on country‐, industry‐, and company‐specific factors.Findings – The study finds that stakeholder groups the company is more dependent on, are addressed in mission statements...

Do Firms Practice What They Preach? The Relationship Between Mission Statements and Stakeholder Management

The accuracy of corporate mission statements has not been well explored. In this study, the authors investigate the relationship between mission statement content and stakeholder management actions. Findings indicate that although social issues such as the environment and diversity are less frequently included, their mention in mission statements is significantly associated with behaviors regarding these issues. The study found no relationship between firms with mission statements that mention specific stakeholder groups (employees, customers, and community) and behaviors regarding these stakeholders. This suggests that the inclusion of specific stakeholder groups in missions is likely the result of institutional pressures, while specifying social issues in missions is related to policy decisions.

A comparative analysis of mission statement content in secular and faith‐based hospitals

PurposeThis paper seeks to determine whether significant differences exist between secular and faith‐based hospitals in terms of specific mission statement components and mission‐related performance variables.Design/methodology/approachA total of 130 top managers from a sample of 515 Canadian hospitals responded to a comprehensive questionnaire investigating 23 mission statement components and seven mission performance outcome measures. Data were analyzed using frequency analysis, one‐way analysis of variance, MANOVA, chi‐squared and Mann‐Whitney U tests.FindingsThe analysis showed that differences in mission content exist between different types of hospitals, and that these differences form a pattern of sorts within each type. It was also found that faith‐based hospitals out‐perform their secular counterparts in many ways.Research limitations/implicationsThe research and its findings are limited in their application to relatively large Canadian health care organizations and the responses/opinions given by managers from a hospital's senior echelons.Practical implicationsThe results have implications for all health care organizations interested in improving the results in their mission performance scorecard. The findings both confirm the impact that mission statements can have on selected hospital performance indicators and demonstrate that faith‐based hospitals have been more diligent in taking advantage of them.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to show that specific and significant differences exist between the mission statements of secular and faith‐based hospitals and that those differences are associated with hospital performance. These findings will be of special interest to senior hospital administrators and “directors of mission” within faith‐based institutions.

How Will They Know Right from Wrong? A Study of Ethics in the Mission Statements and Curriculum of AACSB Undergraduate Marketing Programs

This article focuses on mission statement content and ethics course requirements for domestic AACSB member schools with undergraduate marketing degree programs. Looking at the mission statements and curriculum requirements of 286 schools, results revealed that 64% of the schools either had mission statements that included ethical content, ethics course requirements, or both. Public institutions (30%) were less likely to have an ethics course requirement than private institutions (68%). Implications for marketing education and developing ethical marketers are discussed.

Mission statements in Canadian hospitals.

One of the most popular management tools in the world, the mission statement also is subject to widespread criticism. In order to improve our understanding of the mission statement's strategic value and to provide actionable recommendations for healthcare organizations, the paper adopted a social constructionist perspective in a mission statement study conducted among Canadian hospital executives. The paper found seven factors underlying 23 possible mission statement content items. Four of these (grand inspiration, benefactors, competitive orientation and business definition) corresponded to the dimensions of dominant managerial logic proposed by von Krogh and Grand, and were positively related to various behavioral, financial performance and mission achievement measures. The findings indicate that not all mission statement components are created equal and that the recommendations of major strategy texts may require reconsideration where this particular institutional context is concerned.

Mission statement content and hospital performance in the Canadian not-for-profit health care sector.

This article presents the findings from an exploratory research study that assessed the content and impact of mission statements in 103 Canadian not-for-profit health care organizations. The study especially sought to determine if a relationship existed between selected mission statement components and various hospital performance indicators.

Mission Statement Content and Hospital Performance in the Canadian Not-for-Profit Health Care Sector

This article presents findings from an exploratory research study that assessed the content and impact of mission statements in 103 Canadian not-for-profit health care organizations. The study especially sought to determine if a relationship existed between selected mission statement components and various hospital perfomnce indicators.

Mission Statement Content and Firm Diversification: A Contingency Approach

Mission Statement Content and Firm Diversification: A Contingency Approach