Abstract:

The paper builds on the business implications of Volkswagen AG (VW) scandal and proposes a new lens of analysis: from a customer standpoint, corporate social responsibility is truly a game changer? To answer the controversial debate, the authors have analyzed the dual nature of companies by projecting their role in an evolutionary path of development: making profits and/or contributing to societal wellbeing. Business executives have increasingly started to regard the socially responsible conduct as an opportunity they can leverage to derive competitive advantages and support the long-term success of the company. Despite of these evidences, the carmaker Volkswagen AG (VW) has deliberately engaged, in late 2015, in an immoral conduct by using software devices to evade clean air standards for a period of six years. The article advanced the hypothesis that companies use Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a lever to gain public support. Moreover, large corporations rely on the short memory span of consumers to overlook their irresponsible behaviour in a short-to-medium period. We reached out to the conclusion that the societal role of companies should be described by leadership transparency and ethical conduct. This leads to the necessity of a better scrutiny of companies’ non-financial performance to align communication with actual delivered behaviour.