Abstract
In this article, the authors analyse the mission statements of 50 top Italian enterprises, which are published on the companies' web sites. The purpose of this study is1) to examine the most recent robust and practical researches related to organizational mission statement 2) to establish the degree to which the Italy operating companies make use of their web sites to convey their mission to various stakeholders and 3) to analyse the contents of the mission statements using a Nine Point Scale model given by Fred R. David. According to many leadership scholars, our study confirmed that there is still today a great confusion about a "good" or "bad" mission statement also in eminent companies. The paper helps to identify which are the contents of an effective mission statement and which are the most overlooked elements. It concludes with several propositions to guide future research.