ISO 26000: A Brief Literature Review

Abstract

It has become increasingly imperative for companies to include social responsibility actions in their general business strategies in order to differentiate themselves from competitors and gain the attention and admiration of consumers. In order to ensure the uniform application of social responsibility actions, regardless of the company, field of activity or geographical area, the International Organization for Standardization developed the ISO 26000 standard to control the impact that the decisions and activities of organizations might have on the environment and society. A distinctive feature of the standard is its complexity and broad applicability, so that it has been readily adopted and implemented by different private and public organizations. In this paper, the authors investigate the literature dealing with the theoretical and practical dimensions of ISO 26000, as well as the connection between the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ISO 26000. The paper highlights the characteristics, applicability and success of the international standard. Analysis of the literature reveals that social responsibility has become increasingly popular with entrepreneurs and public organizations as they attach greater importance to various CSR actions which attract the attention of customers and gain their loyalty. The complexity of the ISO 26000 standard is the main reason for its adoption by companies in a variety of fields, with the expectation that it will be accepted on a much wider scale in the future.