Abstract (eng)
Man-made climate change represents the main challenge of our time for our economy and society alike. In order to stop it, sustainability is of a key principle. The automobile manufacturer Volkswagen makes is responsible for the CO2 emissions and has been confronted with critical public expectations, since the Dieselgate affair back in 2015. Volkswagen takes responsibility for that. In its new corporate strategy NEW AUTO with the slogan "mobility for generations to come", Volkswagen is not only demonstrating environmentally consciousness, but also emphasizing the topic of sustainability as main value for its future company activities. Volkswagen understands sustainability as a megatrend and expacts a benefit by using it in that way. The company uses CSR communication in order to legitimize itself in the public sphere. A good way to do that are social media platforms. This work examined two research questions using a qualitative content analysis: RQ1: What differences are there in Volkswagen presenation of sustainability on the social media LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook? And RQ2: How does Volkswagen address sustainability as a megatrend in its presentation on the social media LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook? It was found that Volkswagen presents the topic of sustainability in a different manner on social media. The company follows a stakeholder management approach according to Freeman and distinguishes the user groups of the social media based on their age distribution and their associated environmental awareness. It was also found that Volkswagen presents the topic of sustainability as a megatrend on LinkedIn. The phases of effectiveness and the transformation of the core business were focused for the most part. Followed by the topic of differentiation from competitors and the topic of efficiency. Based on the presenation of sustainability, this master's thesis was able to show the dilemma within the current debate on CSR communication. It has also shown that LinkedIn still has a lot of potential for future work, that needs to be explored.