How many times have we seen a major corporation exposed for malfeasance attempt to bury its wrongdoings with a feigned apology, followed by efforts to sweep the whole thing under the rug and continue with business as usual? A new study out of Finland takes a closer look at this common tactic among corporations to literally memory-hole all traces of their crimes through shareholder intimidation and public relations propaganda.

Researchers from Aalto University and the U.K.-based Cass Business School homed in on corporate irresponsibility as part of an academic inquiry into how multinational corporations deal with major scandals that threaten to destroy their bottom line. A fairly recent example of this is German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen, which was caught illegally tweaking the emissions standards on its vehicles to improve their performance.