Mission Statements of Top Ranked International Airlines Companies : Are They Really Market-oriented ?

Abstract

The most important role of a mission statement is to communicate the strategic orientation of the organization to stakeholders in order to guide strategic planning. The purpose of this study is to examine if the mission statements of the high-performance airline companies in the world deliver a clear direction and if they are Market-oriented. A random sample of fifty firms with online mission statements and ranked as the world's top 100 airlines companies in 2015 were selected. First, a content analysis is used to explore the form and the components of their mission statements.  Second, the study checks the conformity of the mission statements selected to effective ones as recommended by literature. Finally, to explore the extent to which those mission statement is market-oriented another deductive content analysis was realized. The results showed that the majority of mission statements selected were well-designed and effective . Indeed, those mission statements are market-oriented with a high focus on customer-orientation, competitor-orientation and interfunctional coordination. Inspired from the findings, the study will provide recommendations  to examine, create and modify a well-designed and a market-oriented mission statement.