Balancing Organizational Identity through Mission Statements : A Topic Modeling Analysis

Organizational identities define how organizations are perceived inside and outside the organ-izational boundaries. Because organizational identity is deeply embedded in an organization's routines and processes, a continuous identity provides stability, whereas changes in organiza-tional identity are risky and difficult to manage. Yet, digital innovation leads to frequent changes in the external environment, resulting in conflicting requirements and the need to manage changes in the organizational identity. To do so, organizations therefore rely on narra-tives such as mission statements to communicate and balance their identity in the face of fre-quent change and often conflicting demands. We examine the mission statements of the top 1000 R&D spenders and uncover 18 topics that are part of such narratives. We discuss our findings in the context of research on digital innovation and conclude by identifying promising avenues for future research.