Labeling, a driver for CSR’s institutionalization in SMEs
This article proposes to observe the institutionalization of corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a process in five SMEs’ clusters in the digital sector. In the studied cases, the diffusion of CSR is developed by a specific sector CSR label. This article is oriented towards the motivations that lead actors to integrate the CSR label in each cluster, and the logic associated with it, between legitimacy and reputation. The study of these clusters can show that at this stage of the process of institutionalization, there are different profiles of organizations that integrate CSR label in distinct steps. Moreover, if the reputational logic is a vector of labeling, lack of recognition of the label at the time of the study hardly explain the choice of labeling. Finally, if some organizations are institutionalization players, their institutional work is also limited.