Abstract
The « Institut Numérique Responsable », in partnership with the Agence Lucie, created the first French Responsible Digital (NR) label in 2019. There is not much literature dealing with the motivations and fears of internal SME stakeholders to obtain a CSR label. The purpose of our study is to better understand how SME managers and employees perceive a CSR label, regarding the stakeholder theory and the strategic analysis of Crozier and Friedberg. A non-participant observation and semi-structured interviews were carried out with the managers and employees of a digital SME that had started the process of obtaining the NR label. The results show that the motivations of the managers are numerous : to have a structuring and formal framework for CSR, to be perceived as a pioneer organization, to differentiate themselves from their competitors, to contribute to CSR, to satisfy employees and to anticipate regulations. They also show that the motivations of SME managers are not linked to pressure from external stakeholders, nor to the desire to reduce costs but rather to their ethical vision of the company, which plays an essential role in the integration of a CSR approach such as the use of a label. Their main fears are that the labeling process will be assimilated to greenwashing and that some employees are not sensitive enough to societal issues. The SME's commitment to obtaining this label gives employees a sense of pride. They see it as a tool to differentiate themselves from their competitors, but they fear they might not be able to meet the customer expectations that the obtention of such a label could arouse. Obtaining the NR label has enabled this SME to communicate, both internally and externally, on its responsible commitment and to contribute to the development of new rules in its market.