Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft (AG) is a German automotive company founded in 1937. Since then Volkswagen has continued to grow into a multinational company with production facilities in China, India, Latin America , Eastern European countries, Mexico and the United States (Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft). Volkswagen also produces other branded vehicles such as Lamborghini, Audi, Bugatti and Bentley (Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft). For a company to grow it must have worthy business ethics and social responsibility. It must be able to address the economic challenges facing contemporary businesses and have the ability to compete in global markets. In this article I analyze how Volkswagen AG realizes each of these concepts and continues to remain one of the leading automotive companies in today's market. Business Ethics and Social Responsibility: Over the years Volkswagen AG has demonstrated respectable business ethics and social responsibility through how they are there for their employees and customers. An example of this is when Volkswagen decided to manage its foreign subsidiaries in South Africa in a sub-standard manner. Volkswagen chose to do this to save jobs for local assembly line workers and their families when South Africa faced high and prolonged unemployment rates (Yang, Colvin and Wong). Volkswagen not only helped its workers in South Africa, but also helped the women of this region. Volkswagen funded an entrepreneurial seminar for these women in collaboration with the local church (Yang, Colvin and Wong). Volkswagen donated computers to the most poorly funded school district to help ameliorate public problems related to high unemployment rates in the local community, even though it had no direct connection...... middle of paper ..... .65 -71. ProQuest. Network. April 29, 2014.Mahadevan, Neetha. "VW Brand Sales Rise on Chinese Demand; Growth in China Offsets Decline in Europe, U.S." Wall Street Journal (online), January 10, 2014. ProQuest. Network. May 25, 2014. Nunes, Breno and David Bennett. “Green Operations Initiatives in the Automotive Industry.” Benchmarking 17.3 (2010): 396-420. ProQuest. Network. April 29, 2014. "Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft." International Directory of Business Stories. Ed. Jay P. Pederson. vol. 111. Detroit: St. James Press, 2010. Business Insights: Global. Network. April 29, 2014."Volkswagen focuses on profits." Irish Times: 6. 14 March 2014. ProQuest. Network. May 24, 2014. Yang, Nini, Caran Colvin, and Yim-Yu Wong. "NAVIGATION BETWEEN COMPONENTS OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND STRATEGIC OPTIONS: THE PERSPECTIVE OF CSR." Journal of the Academy of Strategic Management 12.1 (2013): 39-58. ProQuest.Web.May 18. 2014.