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A content analysis of top-ranked universities’ mission statements from five global regions

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  • Bayrak, Tuncay

Abstract

In general, a mission statement reflects the context in which a higher education institution operates. It’s also a direction setting statement indicating the direction required for effective strategic and operational decisions. This study examines how the highest ranked universities in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa, and North America compare in terms of their mission statements and how they communicate to their stakeholders and to the public about what their main purposes, values, goals, and objectives are. Having downloaded each university’s mission statement from the Internet, we then classified them into five main categories of Asian, African, European, Latin American, and North American universities and analyzed them separately using the text mining and analysis tools available in SAS Enterprise Miner, a powerful commercial business analytics program. Results show that although we found similar terms and themes in the mission statements across the five different regions, there is great variability in the mission statements with respect to how they communicate their core values, main purposes, and value propositions.

Suggested Citation

  • Bayrak, Tuncay, 2020. "A content analysis of top-ranked universities’ mission statements from five global regions," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:injoed:v:72:y:2020:i:c:s0738059318309969
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2019.102130
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Christopher C. Morphew & Matthew Hartley, 2006. "Mission Statements: A Thematic Analysis of Rhetoric across Institutional Type," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(3), pages 456-471, May.
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    5. Macedo, Isabel Maria & Pinho, José Carlos & Silva, Anabela Martins, 2016. "Revisiting the link between mission statements and organizational performance in the non-profit sector: The mediating effect of organizational commitment," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 36-46.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Lin, Yi-Hsin & Lin, Feng-Jyh & Wang, Kuo-Hsiung, 2021. "The effect of social mission on service quality and brand image," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 744-752.
    3. Stella D. Juventia & Sarah K. Jones & Marie-Angélique Laporte & Roseline Remans & Chiara Villani & Natalia Estrada-Carmona, 2020. "Text Mining National Commitments towards Agrobiodiversity Conservation and Use," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-19, January.

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