Methodology in mission statement research: where are we, and were should we go? An analysis of 20 years of empirical research

The study at hand analyses the research strategies applied in empirical articles addressing the concept of mission statements. We systematically scanned eight computerized databases in order to delimit the field of empirical mission statement research. This scanning process resulted in 63 articles. Consequently the detected articles were analyzed by means of a code sheet. The code sheet comprised five general sets of research strategy characteristics: (1) primary data location and means of data collection, (2) level of analysis, (3) sample characteristics, (4) type of analysis / analytic techniques and (5) time frame. The results of the content analysis enabled us to assess the validity and robustness of research conducted within the field of mission statement research. Suggestions are made to increase the level of validity of future research. We claim that the results of the study at hand will contribute to the maturation of the field. They will provide insights into the possible future development of mission statement research methodology and facilitate the transition of the field from predominantly descriptive to empirically grounded.