Developing a Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy in India Using the SA 8000 Standard

In todays global markets, issues related to Corporate Social Responsibility have greater importance on business performance, and international standards are dened as tools for companies to internalize their sustainability requests. The aim of this paper is to understand how the SocialAccountability 8000 (SA 8000) standard is managed by developing countries, focusing on Indiancertied companies, analyzing, in detail, of the motivations and benets that prompted them to certication and barriers to its implementation. The research is based on a qualitative multiple case study. A total number of six companies participated in the research. The study showed that one of themain reasons for Indian companies of being SA 8000 certied is the willingness to satisfy the requestfor greater transparency on the part of stakeholders and the market in general. The study shows that by certifying SA 8000, Indian textile companies want to be promoters of a more sustainable and ethical way of doing business. The value of the research lies in the decision to focus on the Indian market, and in the textile sector, since India is the rst country with the largest number of SA 8000 certied companies among developing countries and its textile industry is relevant all around the world.