Context:

In the last decades, one has the impression that the term sustainable development has evolved towards social responsibility and that the activities carried out by organizations and institutions are very similar. Nevertheless, this paper presents a theoretical discussion of the contribution of social responsibility. The question of this research is: through indicators of general interest and scientific production, it is possible to determine the evolution of sustainable development towards social responsibility?

Methodology:

Using the non-participatory method of secondary data analysis, secondary data from articles in the Redalyc, WorldCat, Microsoft Academic, Scopus, and Web of Science databases and specialized books on the topics were analyzed. Google Ngram Viewer and Google Trends were used to compare the variations of the indicators of scientific production and interest.

Results:

Through secondary data analysis, it was possible to establish indicators of general interest and scientific production. A discussion is presented on the evolution of sustainable development towards social responsibility.

Conclusions:

The results showed that the evolution of sustainable development towards social responsibility was not surpassed over time, except at some moments and in specific geographical locations.