The social responsibility, a valuable capital of competitive differentiation : Case ofSmall and Medium-sized beninese companies[La responsabilitésociale, un capital valorisable de différenciation concurrentielle : Cas des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises béninoises]

This paper proposes to deal with the way in wich Benin SMEs differentiate themselves on a competitive level thanks to the CSR practices implemented. We carried out a quantitative study based on a questionnaire with 481 Beninese SMEs whose data were presented and processed according to SPSS 21. To this end, we performed the analysis using a technique using structural equation modeling based on variance: partial least squares. Thus, our results confirm the claims that employees are the stakeholders with the greatest impact on competitiveness, mainly because of their ability to increase or reduce the productivity level of SMEs and their role in the value chain. On the other hand, with regard to the environment and customers, our results highlight the need to plan a socially responsible strategy that highlights the benefits that these two stakeholders can offer. Finally, our results also indicated that the development of CSR practices promotes the strengthening of links between SMEs and their stakeholders and that this improvement in turn affects competitiveness.