Mission Statement, Stakeholders, Values, and Global Firm Performance: A Quantitative Study

The literature regarding corporate mission statements has a long history with varied results regarding mission statements' relationship to profitability. It is hoped that this quantitative study of 218 large public global corporations to determine a possible relationship between the inclusion of stakeholders and individual values in large global corporate mission and values statements and return on equity (ROE) adds to this literature. The problem is that firm managers do not know which mission statement concepts should be included to positively affect profitability. Some past studies have addressed stakeholders and organizational values, but not individual values. This study was unique in addressing stakeholders and individual values in corporate mission statements to determine if there was a relationship to profitability. Using a quantitative correlational study design and individual values, the purpose of this research was to provide management with better information regarding the creation of mission statements to increase profitability. A content analysis of mission and values statements to determine the frequency of mention of stakeholder and individual values concepts was undertaken and then the relationship, if any, to ROE was determined using a multiple regression analysis on the content analysis data. The results suggested that the two null hypotheses were not rejected, for stakeholders, R2 = .01, F(5, 212) = .42, p > .05, or values, R 2 = .01, F(6, 210) = .48, p > .05. There was no significant linear relationship between the frequency of mention of stakeholders operationalized as employees, customers, shareholders, society, and government in mission statements, and the ROE. There was no significant linear relationship between the frequency of mention of individual values in mission statements, and the ROE. The study evidenced some support for accepting both null hypotheses. Additionally the study yielded a few confirmatory results regarding the customer and benevolence as the most often mentioned stakeholders and individual values respectively in mission statements. This study corroborated that there may be some overlap in the individual values of benevolence and conformity as evidenced in the Pearson correlation r = .606 at a .01 level to be further studied as suggested by Schwartz et al. (2012).