Analysis of the level of disclosure of the mission statements of large Brazilian companies<sup>,</sup>

Junqueira, Emanuel; Camacho, Reinaldo; Santos, Eric Ferreira dos

doi:10.1590/1808-057x202009810

Emanuel Junqueira

Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo, Departamento de Ciências Contábeis, Vitória, ES, Brazil

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0822-3570

Reinaldo Camacho

Universidade Estadual do Maringá, Departamento de Ciências Contábeis, Maringá, PR, Brazil

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2771-9376

Eric Ferreira dos Santos

Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Departamento de Ciências Contábeis, Londrina, PR, Brazil

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4602-7263

Email:
emanuel.matos@ufes.br

Email:
rrcamacho@uem.br

Email:
eric.santos@kroton.com.br

Correspondence address:

Emanuel Junqueira. Universidade Federal do Espirito Santo, Departamento de Ciências Contábeis. Avenida Fernando Ferrari, 514 - CEP 29075960. Goiabeiras - Vitória - ES - Brazil

Editor-in-Chief: Fábio Frezatti

Associate Editor: Cláudio de Araújo Wanderley

Qualifier	Formula	Operational definition
Type 1 omission	$1 - \frac{A C x}{C S x}$	Proportion of non-inclusion of the SGP construct, considering the sampling volume of companies of the sector.
Type 2 omission	$\frac{(\frac{C x}{P})}{C S x}$	Ratio of characters per word of the SGP construct over the sampling volume of companies of the sector. Shows the level of detail or simplification (omission) of the discourse.
Global relative disclosure	$(\frac{C 1}{C S 1} + \dots + \frac{C 8}{C S 8})$	Sum of the volume of characters of each SGP construct over the sampling volume. Identifies the level of expressivity of a mission as a whole. An average score of 12.5% (1/8 constructs) is expected for each construct.
Relative disclosure	$\frac{C 5}{C S 5} / (\frac{C x}{C S 1} + \dots + \frac{C 8}{C S 8})$	Ratio of the volume of characters of the SGP construct over the total characters of the mission statement. Serves to demonstrate the expressivity of the construct, considering the mission as a whole. Should only include the companies that disclosed the SGP construct.
Smoothing	$\frac{C x}{C S x}$	Ratio of the volume of characters of the SGP construct over the sampling volume of companies of the sector.
Concealment	$\frac{(S u r + G r o + P r o)}{3}$	Mean of the presence of the survival, growth, and profitability constructs. Understood as the suppression of at least one of the three core concepts in the component.
Discourse balance - Bart’s criterion (2006Bart, C. K. (2006). Mission profitable. The Canadian Manager, 31(3), 20.)	$\frac{P}{C S x}$	Ratio of the volume of words of the construct over the sampling volume of companies of the sector. Shows the level of balance in the mission statements.

Sector	Quantity of companies (n)	Discloses the construct (%)	Does not disclose the construct (%)
Mining	3	100.0	0.0
Textiles	2	100.0	0.0
Pharmaceuticals	4	75.0	25.0
Agricultural Production	13	69.2	30.8
Steelmaking and Metallurgy	10	60.0	40.0
Chemicals and Petrochemicals	15	53.3	46.7
Electronics	4	50.0	50.0
Telecommunications	4	50.0	50.0
Energy	35	48.6	51.4
Consumer Goods	18	44.4	55.6
Wholesale	21	42.9	57.1
Construction Industry	7	42.9	57.1
Digital Industry	7	42.9	57.1
Infrastructure	7	42.9	57.1
Services	7	42.9	57.1
Pulp and Paper	3	33.3	66.7
Transport	9	33.3	66.7
Automotive industry	11	27.3	72.7
Retail	22	27.3	72.7
Health Services	11	18.2	81.8
Capital Goods	3	0.0	100.0
Communications	2	0.0	100.0
Various	2	0.0	100.0
Total	220	43.6	56.4

Sector	Components of the SGP construct			Disclosure of the construct (%)
Sector	Profitability	Growth	Survival	Disclosure of the construct (%)
Wholesale	Yes	Yes	Yes	100.0
Energy	Yes	Yes	Yes	100.0
Construction Industry	Yes	Yes	Yes	100.0
Digital Industry	Yes	Yes	Yes	100.0
Agricultural Production	Yes	Yes	Yes	100.0
Chemicals and Petrochemicals	Yes	Yes	Yes	100.0
Steelmaking and Metallurgy	Yes	Yes	Yes	100.0
Retail	Yes	Yes	Yes	100.0
Automotive Industry	Yes	Yes	No	66.7
Consumer Goods	Yes	Yes	No	66.7
Electronics	Yes	Yes	No	66.7
Pharmaceuticals	Yes	Yes	No	66.7
Mining	Yes	Yes	No	66.7
Pulp and Paper	No	Yes	Yes	66.7
Services	Yes	Yes	No	66.7
Textiles	Yes	Yes	No	66.7
Infrastructure	Yes	No	No	33.3
Health Services	No	Yes	No	33.3
Telecommunications	Yes	No	No	33.3
Transport	Yes	No	No	33.3
Disclosure of the component (%)	90.0	85.0	45.0	73.3

	Sector	Means no. of words of the SGP construct
1º	Pulp and Paper	11.0
2º	Mining	10.0
3º	Electronics	9.0
4º	Health Services	8.5
5º	Consumer Goods	8.0*
6º	Retail	7.8*
7º	Construction Industry	7.3*
8º	Textiles	7.0*
9º	Chemicals and Petrochemicals	6.8*
10º	Energy	6.5*
11º	Transport	6.3*
12º	Wholesale	6.2*
13º	Agricultural Production	6.0*
14º	Automotive industry	5.3
15º	Telecommunications	4.5
16º	Digital Industry	4.0
17º	Steelmaking and metallurgy	3.7
18º	Infrastructure	3.3
19º	Services	2.7
20º	Pharmaceuticals	2.7

Sector	SGP construct		Characters of the statement (n)	Disclosure of the construct per company (%)	Disclosure of the construct per sector (%)
Sector	Mean per sector	Mean per company	Characters of the statement (n)	Disclosure of the construct per company (%)	Disclosure of the construct per sector (%)
Textile	38	65	149	25.5	25.5
Mining	55	59	229	24.0	24.0
Pulp and Paper	22	50	95	68.4	23.2
Agricultural Production	26	37	154	24.0	16.9
Electronics	28	50	216	25.9	13.0*
Telecommunications	14	37	111	26.1	12.6*
Consumer Goods	22	40	176	28.4	12.5*
Chemicals and Petrochemicals	24	29	198	22.7	12.1*
Wholesale	16	56	135	27.4	11.9*
Energy	20	38	175	24.0	11.4*
Construction Industry	17	37	149	26.8	11.4*
Retail	14	55	141	35.5	9.9
Transport	12	42	124	29.8	9.7
Digital Industry	10	45	108	22.2	9.3
Health Services	11	24	142	41.5	7.7
Infrastructure	9	36	143	15.4**	6.3
Steelmaking and Metallurgy	14	22	231	10.0**	6.1
Automotive industry	10	23	173	20.8	5.8
Pharmaceuticals	10	13	174	7.5	5.7
Services	7	17	270	6.3	2.6

Sector	CSD-SGP
Wholesale	“generating economic-financial development and strength through the partnerships to serve the shareholders and partners with a consolidated brand”
Automotive Industry	“that shareholder results guarantee growth and ensure profitable growth for the shareholders”
Consumer Goods	“generating economic value and return for the shareholders, adding value for the partners, creating long-lasting bonds”
Electronics	“ensuring profitable growth for the shareholders”
Energy	“increasingly creating value and return for the shareholders and partners, through dividends, interest on own capital, cash generating capacity, return on investments, obtaining profitable results in the search for excellence”
Pharmaceuticals	“generation and sharing of value with the shareholders for a profitable operation”
Construction Industry	“to generate profit for the shareholders, giving continuity to the business and to its financial health”
Digital Industry	“to maximize the creation of value for the shareholders, investors, and the whole ecosystem of partnerships”
Infrastructure	“with a focus on return, in order to satisfy the shareholders, generating value for the interested parties, thus fulfilling the economic role”
Mining	“with gold as the main focus to create value for the social partnerships, providing an adequate return on investments for the shareholders”
Pulp and Paper	“to build a relationship of trust with the shareholders and partners”
Agricultural Production	“to promote long-term relationships in the market, generating profit, income, economic results, and well-being for the associates”
Chemicals and Petrochemicals	“for us to achieve and maintain above-average profitability for our shareholders with growth, favoring the commercial partnerships, strengthening the company’s profit-making capacity, and what we represent as a brand”
Health Services	“to provide conditions for corporate and comparative development and improvement”
Services	“to contribute to the success of the business, being profitable for the shareholders”
Steelmaking and Metallurgy	“contributing to the success of our shareholders, so as to create profitable, long-lasting, and replicable relationships”
Telecommunications	“generating value for the shareholders”
Textiles	“generating return for the company and partners by creating value for the shareholders”
Transport	“profitable, considering the shareholders’ interests”
Retail	“strengthening the brand, aiming to create long-lasting relationships that generate value for all and for the shareholders, guaranteeing continuity, permanent and constant growth of the company, and the expansion of the business, thus achieving a sound financial footing”

WHOESALE - The concern of the sector lies in developing the economy and in strengthening partnerships. Economic development is linked to profit generation. The strengthening of partnerships can be understood as prioritizing the relationship with partners, aiming to serve the shareholders, enabling growth. Brand consolidation leads to market survival.

AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY - Shareholder results are what guarantees and ensures profitable growth. Guaranteeing and ensuring refer to the idea of obtaining profitability and maintaining it at an acceptable level, unlike the idea of Delmar et al. (2013Delmar, F., McKelvie, A., & Wennberg, K. (2013). Untangling the relationships among growth, profitability and survival in new firms. Technovation, 33(8-9), 276-291.), where profitability leads to survival, growth, and profitability; in this case, profitability in the form of shareholder results leads to growth. The inversion of this logic may perhaps signal greedy behavior, as mentioned by Demsetz (1997Demsetz, H. (1997). Profit maximization and rational behavior. The Economics of the Firm: Seven Critical Commentarities. Cambridge University.), by not prioritizing survival and growth in the discourse in relation to profitability. Profitability is a core concept of the component, but only in relation to growth, as survival is not mentioned.

CONSUMER GOODS - The sector mentions the generation of value and profitability for the shareholders while adding to the partners. Profitability is objective and expressed. And it mentions the “creation of long-lasting bonds,” which is a concern with growth. Company survival is not clearly mentioned.

ELETRONICS - The emphasis of this discourse lay in “ensuring profitable growth.” The expression “profitable growth” synthesizes the elements in the component. The discourse does not detail this and does not mention survival. The application of the term “ensure” perhaps signals that the sector has already achieved desirable levels of profitability and that its efforts are focused on maintaining those levels.

ENERGY - The energy sector is more specific in portraying the component, as it mentions the creation of profitability and growth through partnerships and specifies the means for this. The discourse makes explicit the possibility of there being “unprofitable results.” The sector states that profitable results are achieved during the search for excellence. Company survival in this sector may be associated with that search.

PHARAMCEUTICALS - The capacity to generate and strengthen value (profitability) is highlighted. The value generated is shared with the shareholders. There is an emphasis on sharing that leads to a “profitable operation.” Sharing value is indicative of growth, which leads to profitability.

CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY - The term “profit” is used emphatically. The terms “continuity” and “financial health” relate to the nature of growth and survival.

DIGITAL INDUSTRY - There is a search to maximize the value created, which can be understood as profit maximization of the shareholders, investors, and partners. This discourse expands the limits of profitability to the partners, thinking of the supply chain. The “ecosystem of partnerships” may indicate that the growth and/or survival of the companies of the sector depend on this.

INFRASTRUCTURE - “Shareholder satisfaction” is emphasized. “Value creation for the interested parties” refers to the generation of value for the shareholders, with a specific focus on profitability. Fulfillment of the economic role may create the understanding that serving the shareholder is fulfilling the economic role.

MINING - Gold is the companies’ focus in the process of “creating value for the social partners.” The term “social” highlights the recognition of the relationships for growth. The expression “adequate return” indicates the type of return sought by the companies of the sector, making it implicit that “inadequate return” is possible. The discourse may lead to the idea that the companies have provided, in the past, an unexpected return for the shareholders. Survival is not clearly mentioned.

PULP AND PAPER - Building trust, as a component, highlights the discourse of this sector. Relationships of trust with the shareholders can indicate survival and relationships of trust with the partners can indicate growth in the market. There is no specific mention of return or profitability, although building trust with the “shareholders and partners” can lead to profitability.

AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION - The sector aims to promote a long-term relationship in the market by thinking about growth and survival. It makes it clear that it desires the generation of profit, income, and economic results, but complements this by mentioning a philosophical component of wanting to generate “well-being” for the associates or beneficiaries (shareholders) through the profit generated.

CHEMICALS AND PETROCHEMICALS - There is a clear desire to achieve and maintain profitability. The term “above average” may indicate that the evolution of profitability is closely monitored. The sector desires growth and the commercial partners are beneficiaries of that growth. The company’s survival is stated through “strengthening the ability to make a profit” and the brand’s representativeness in the market.

HEALTH SERVICES - Profitability and survival are not mentioned, but growth is highlighted as being based on the development and improvement of the corporate and comparative aspects.

SERVICES - The “contribution to business success” and the need to be “profitable for the shareholders” are pillars of the component for the sector. “Business success” may indicate effective growth in the market, while “profitable” may represent the desire to obtain profits in order to serve the shareholders.

STEELMAKING AND METALLURGY - “Contribution to the success of the business” is mentioned. By highlighting the long-lasting, profitable, and replicable relationship, the closeness between the concepts of growth, profitability, and survival is demonstrated.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS - The discourse of this sector is very lean and brief. Generating value for the shareholders is the aim of the sector, relating to profitability, with no expression of survival and growth aspects.

TEXTILES - The “generation of return” is related to the company and the partners, valuing the supply chain and growth and dependence on value creation. This mitigates growth. “Generation of return” and “value creation” may be similar expressions. If they are, there is an order of priorities for value generation: shareholders, companies, and partners. Survival is not clearly mentioned.

TRANSPORT - Profitability is associated with the shareholders’ interests. There is no explicit mention of the concepts of survival and growth.

RETAIL - The concepts growth and survival are highlighted by the emphasis on “strength of the brand,” the “long-lasting relationship,” “permanent growth,” and “continuity.” Value creation is not limited to the shareholders, but is extended to all. The major concern is with the expansion of the business to obtain a strong financial footing. Profitability is expressed in the terms “value” and “financial.”

[1] Email:
emanuel.matos@ufes.br

Brasil

Brasil

ABSTRACT