Anis SHAMI

Jury

Abstract

This thesis aims to develop a tool to rate the impact of companies' digital activities on different stakeholders. To achieve this, the rating tool follows a double-materiality framework. The thesis addresses the need for such a tool, especially in a technology-driven and evolving market. This tool helps companies improve the way they perform their digital activities/operations. It also aids the stakeholders in the decision-making process. The thesis revolves around three key concepts, including digital activities, double materiality, and rating. These three concepts interconnect to achieve the research objective. Digital activities are the operations that the tool evaluates. The double materiality is the assessment approach the tool adopts. Finally, rating is the delivery mechanism for displaying the results of the tool evaluation.
The thesis covers different threads of literature related to the three key concepts. It defines and identifies digital activities. It explores the double-materiality principle and investigates its implementation in the context of non-financial reporting. It also examines existing corporate rating initiatives, including credit ratings, corporate social responsibility ratings, and digital ratings. This investigation helps inform the development of the rating tool. The thesis adopts a combination of stakeholder theory and the double materiality principle. This framework guides the identification of the tool's building blocks. These blocks combine the significant areas, topics, and indicators to rate organizations' digital performance.
The research methodology employs a pragmatic philosophy. It utilizes qualitative and quantitative approaches. It also uses a mixed-methods strategy. It collects data from various sources, like organizations’ annual reports, privacy policies, ESG metrics, and third-party databases. The model development process involves selecting building blocks for the rating model. We conduct this selection process in two phases. The first phase identifies indicators/blocks from a theoretical standpoint. The second phase uses the theoretically identified indicators. It empirically specifies their significance in assessing the impact of organizations’ digital activities. This process involves five sub-models to represent the interests of different stakeholders.
In this thesis, we assess the resulting rating tool for robustness. We also apply it in a case study with the example of three companies. The thesis provides a questionnaire format as a tool. This questionnaire helps conduct the rating assessment following the double materiality framework. It first facilitates direct communication with the rated entities. Additionally, it aids in calculating and generating the rating score.
The thesis concludes by discussing the contributions of the study. This includes the rating tool's theoretical, methodological, and managerial contributions. It shows how this tool can foster trust between organizations and stakeholders. This is particularly true in the current technology- and data-driven market. The thesis ends by discussing the limitations, implications, and paths for future research.
This project provides a novel opportunity to investigate a multi-disciplinary topic. Conducted through a CIFRE contract, it brings together expertise in various fields (Information System, Data Sciences, Audit, and Artificial Intelligence) from both academic and professional worlds. This project aims to establish a partnership between multiple facilities, where it will be conducted within the Ecole Doctorales Science et Gestion (EDSG) at Universite Grenoble Alpes and at the professional level will be implemented within Dawex - Global data marketplace - a leading data exchange company with the aid of the Multidisciplinary Institute in Artificial Intelligence Grenoble Alps (MIAI) and the Association Nationale Recherche Technologie (ANRT).