Clean diesel and dirty scandal: The echo of Volkswagen's dieselgate in an intra-industry setting

Abstract

In 2015 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed that German car manufacturer Volkswagen had illegally installed software to produce fake NOx-emissions results. This study aims to analyze how the German news media framed VW's role. Furthermore, since the scandal shifted from a single company to an industry-wide crisis, this contribution also aims to establish whether the German news media reframed the crisis as an industry-wide phenomenon in 2018. The results show that the Dieselgate was reframed in 2018 as an industry-wide scandal where the conflict, morality, and attribution of responsibility frame were most dominant. We argue that the first wrongdoer in an industry creates a crisis history, which potentially becomes an intensifying factor for competitors who are confronted with similar crises in a later stage. Findings extend the theoretical premise of an organizational reputation as postulated in SCCT, as the organizational reputation is most likely influenced by changing industry-wide perceptions as well.