Exploring the Innovativeness and Market Orientation through Mission and Vision Statements: The Case of Istanbul Stock Exchange Companies

Today, the role of innovation and market orientation has turned into an important competitive tool to sustain competitive advantage and survive in the global competitive market. Market orientation and innovativeness are among the major value adding aspects for the strategies of the companies. Also, competitiveness, profitability and innovativeness of the companies that are open to the public (of whose stocks are traded in the stock exchange market) can be considered as vital indicators for the stockholders. Within this context, mission and the vision statements which can be seen as important explanations to describe the organizations’ basic reasons of existence, values, objectives and priorities for strategic management process also reflect the market orientation and innovativeness. In this study, 329 companies in Istanbul Stock Exchange are examined by content analysis method by examining their mission and vision statements through their web sites and annual reports. The data are used in the analysis to determine the companies’ innovativeness and market orientation levels and these will be compared by various sector.