Responsible digital labeling approach in SMEs: cross-study of the motivations and fears of internal stakeholders[Démarche de labellisation numérique responsable en PME : étude croisée des motivations et des craintes des parties prenantes internes]

The Responsible Digital Institute, in partnership with Agency Lucie, created the French Responsible Digital label in 2019. The objective of our study is to understand the motivations and fears of SME managers and employees in a CSR labeling process and to highlight the convergences and divergences between the perceptions of these actors, with regard to the theory of stakeholders and Crozierian analysis. Non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews were carried out in a digital SME that had started the process of obtaining the NR label. The results show that the motivations and fears of managers, multiple and intertwined, rub off on the perceptions of employees. They also show that if the managers hold a form of statutory power and the informational resources necessary for the implementation of the labeling process, the employees hold a significant form of power linked to their desire to get involved and their will and ability to convey the values disseminated by leaders to their internal colleagues and external stakeholders.