E-reputation: The role of mission and vision statements in positioning strategy

This study is concerned with the reputation-building potential of corporate websites. Claims have been made that companies are positioning themselves on the Internet by including mission and vision statements within their websites. The aim is to test these claims, and by doing so to explore the implications of the approaches used by companies in managing e-reputation. A content analysis is presented of the mission and vision (or equivalent) statements included within the websites of Fortune 500 companies in three sectors: computer manufacturers, specialist retailers and commercial banks. The time taken to access the appropriate material within each website and its location were also noted. The content analysis is structured using the five-dimensional framework of Aaker. Profiles of companies in the same sector are calculated, and these profiles used to deduce the positioning implied by the frequency of use of key words within individual mission and vision statements. Positioning maps are produced from the data using correspondence analysis. While many companies appear to be positioning themselves against ‘competence’, the results show substantial differences between companies competing in the same sectors as well as differences between the profile of leading companies across sectors. Even though the majority of websites examined included mission and vision statements, the time taken to access the sought material often exceeded the chosen threshold of ten minutes. Companies including mission and vision statements in managing their reputation of the Web need to pay greater attention to the content and accessibility of such material.