The Impact of Implementing ISO 26000 on Firms’ Performance: The Mediating Role of Corporate Governance

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the impact of implementing social responsibility ISO 26000 on firms’ performance in the telecommunication industry in Jordan through considering the mediating role of corporate governance. Theoretical framework: Three telecommunication companies are licensed in Jordan: Zain, Orange and Umniah. Jordan telecommunication industry has witnessed big growth in the latest years (Obeidat, 2016.). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an essential factor that is expected to boost performance of Jordanian telecommunication companies (Al-ma’ani, et. al., 2019). They added that applying CSR will result in employee and customer satisfaction and increase the levels of loyalty of internal and external stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility has a highly positive effect contribution to the development of society and firm's achievement in terms of profit (Al-Kayed, 2014). This paper investigates social responsibility impact on firms' performance from the perspective of ISO 26000 seven core subjects that are organizational governance, human rights, labour practices, the environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues and community involvement and development. Design, Methodology, Approach: A purposive sample of 350 senior employees from both organizations were given the questionnaire. There were 304 valid questionnaires for the actual analysis. Two statistical methods were employed to examine the data. The preliminary data were analysed using SPSS version 24, which also provided descriptive analysis of the sample's data collection, including means, standard deviations, and frequencies. Additionally, to evaluate whether the mediator variable is acting as a mediator or not, the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) with AMOS 22 was used to analyse the hypothesis. Findings: The study findings show that there is a statistically significant impact of the implementation of social responsibility ISO 26000 on firms’ performance in the Jordanian companies within the telecommunication industry. Furthermore, the study also found that corporate governance had a significant impact on firms’ performance, where the relationship is significant and positive, but it doesn’t have a mediating role between implementing social responsibility ISO 26000 and firms’ performance. Research, Practical & Social implications: The theoretical implication is that this study is expected to be a reference for further researchers who study social responsibility especially for those who wish to conduct research in ISO 26000. For the practical implication, to achieve more validation of the study model and to achieve more generalized findings, further investigation needs to be conducted with the national perspective, developing the study model to consider other industries in Jordan. In other words, more research could validate the same model by replicating it in a comparative study in different industries as an attempt to ascertain if the model could be more general in the different industries. Originality: All organizations wanting to comprehend social responsibility from the perspective of ISO 26000 will find benefit in this article.