The congruence between the mission statements of accredited business schools: a study using textual data mining tools

We live in a world increasingly enveloped with data. Data that can be numerical or in many cases data which is verbal or written. This study investigates similarities between mission and vision statements of universities as a means of better understanding the usefulness of these statements as a comparative means for business schools and their universities. In doing this, we utilised a verbal data evaluation tool, CLUTO cluster analysis as a means of understanding useful verbal similarities. The study reviewed the mission and vision statements for almost 500 AACSB accredited universities and business schools. The CLUTO tool provided useful information while discriminating between university mission statements in certain instances. We found that public institutions' missions were consistently differentiated from those of private schools. We also found that religious schools exhibited consistent similarities within the religious universities but differed from those non-sectarian universities. Geography did not appear to be a factor in discriminating statements either viewed by themselves or as a framework for regional business accrediting bodies. We extended the value of verbal data evaluation as a means of analysing mission and vision statements.