Study of Mission Statement as an Antecedent to Financial Performance of Digital Firms

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to conduct an investigation of the Forbes Top 100 digital companies’ Mission statements (MS) and the impact they have on each firm’s performance, as reflected by their rankings. For the purpose of study, the financial performance data of these companies has been taken from the 2019 Forbes list of Top 100 Digital Companies. The mission statements of these companies have been collected from their respective corporate websites, company documents, and their official social media handles. A positive correlation was observed between number of stakeholders covered through the MS and the firm’s return on assets. Digital companies that mentioned ‘employees’ in their MS have performed significantly better than other firms. Additionally, digital firms which showed ‘concern for societal benefits’ through their MS also performed better. This research underlines the importance of incorporating words such as ‘employees’ as well as having ‘societal orientations’ while designing the MS in digital organizations.