Comparative Analysis of Mission Statements of Chinese and American Fortune 500 Companies: A Study from the Perspective of Linguistics

Abstract

A mission statement is an important instrument for strategic management for an enterprise. How to establish a mission statement and how to leverage its roles in conveying the vision of and leading the long-term and sustainable growth of the enterprise are critical in strategic planning for enterprises. The current study adopted a corpus analysis method and built a corpus of mission statements by selecting the mission statements of 100 companies each from Chinese and American companies in the 2017 Fortune 500 companies. Through the analysis of high-frequency words obtained from the corpus based on the appraisal system approach from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), we attempted to identify the characteristics discerning the mission statements of Chinese and American companies. Our results showed that (1) the distribution patterns of evaluation resource words of Chinese and American companies are similar; (2) Chinese companies highlight innovation, society and development of the enterprise, while American companies emphasize customers and product or service; (3) both Chinese and American enterprises highly concern survival, philosophy and public image; (4) American companies pay more attention to stakeholders, especially primary social stakeholders, while Chinese companies’ attention is inclined to secondary social stakeholders. It is concluded that the mission statements of Chinese companies are society oriented and emphasize the social roles of an organization, showing a corporate pertinence to a lesser extent, while American companies’ mission statements pay more attention to customers and partner relationships, which can be seen as the American companies’ market and individual orientation.

Differences in Readability, Keywords, and Orientation of Mission Statements of the Top 100 Korean and Top 100 US Traditional and Innovative Companies

“…Many researchers have analyzed the mission statements of countries [12][13][14]. However, there were no cases in which the differences in mission statements of Korean and US companies were analyzed.…”

“…According to Alegre et al [11], mission statements were first studied in the 1980s, and it was found that a well-crafted mission statement can affect employees, organizational performance, and stakeholders. Various studies have been conducted on how mission statements vary among nations [12,13]. Bartkus et al [12] analyzed the components of mission statements of European, Japanese, and US companies and studied their differences.…”

What Drives the Food Safety Certification: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis of Food Companies in China

“…Therefore, companies with different shareholding characteristics will have various CSR information disclosures. State-owned companies need to fulfill their responsibility to sustain the country’s economic development and lead the industry’s response to government policies [ 22 ]. As channels for the government to release information to the outside world, state-owned companies are subject to more pressure from government policies than non-state-owned companies; thus, they are more inclined to fulfill CSR [ 23 ].…”

“…A mission statement is the basis of strategic decision-making and can help an organization focus on what is important to them [ 29 ]. The content of a company’s mission statement reflects its characteristics, priorities, and goals [ 22 ]. As the future development direction and cultural symbol of the company, a mission statement is an important source of the cognitive legitimacy of CSR culture.…”

How Does Mission Statement Relate to the Pursuit of Food Safety Certification by Food Companies?

“…The focus on food safety in the mission statement of a food company may result from the company’s pursuit of a positive image in response to government and public expectations, or from the interests of the company shareholders [ 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Moreover, the mission statements of Chinese companies are society-oriented and tend to emphasize the social roles of an organization [ 15 ], so will those food companies with a high focus on food safety in their mission statement be more willing to undertake more direct and substantial actions regarding food safety, often reflected in the pursuit of food safety certification? Under what circumstances can a food safety-focused mission statement be effective?…”