Global Journal of Human Social Science, E: Economics, Volume 22 Issue 7

elements that make up strategic management, according to Silva Murillo (2010) and Pedros and Gutiérrez (2012), are: mission, vision, values and strategic goal or objectives, as shown in Figure 3. Source: Own elaboration. Figure 3: Elementary concepts that make up strategic management. Collins and Porras (1996), define a company's mission as the core ideology that determines the enduring character of an organization, providing a coherent identity that transcends product life or marketing cycles, technological advances, management fads and individual leaders. Research by Pearce and David (1987) was the first attempt to empirically study the relationship between mission statements and firm performance. They sought to test the value of the statements by using content analysis to review the components of the statements of Fortune 500 companies. Their findings supported that the inclusion of the proposed mission statement components, is positively associated with a firm's financial performance, however, they assert that there are many variables that affect organizational performance, so the results do not suggest that their inclusion in mission statements directly improves organizational performance, as a firm can have a comprehensive mission statement and still experience a decline in sales and profits for various reasons (Contreras-Pacheco et al., 2021). Vision according to Kirkpatrick (2017), is the positive impact the organization wants to have. A vision statement is a formal description of the desired future state of the organization in the long term. Contreras- Pacheco et al. (2021) states that several studies show that companies whose vision focuses on a desired future state are better prepared for change. A correct vision, with the right characteristics and components aimed at cultivating a culture of innovation as a fundamental pillar at all levels of the organization, allows the company to gain a competitive advantage. Contreras-Pacheco et al. (2021), identified six (6) variables that allow to understand the relationships between mission, vision, competitive advantage and innovative capacity in a company, as shown in Table 2. Volume XXII Issue VII Version I 72 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 © 2022 Global Journals E Strategic Direction as an Input to Human Resources Planning