Our work aims to investigate the consumers’ perception of CSR activities of an ethical company which, however, is not judged favorably by its consumers, to verify whether a negative opinion of the company corresponds a negative perception also of CSR practices. For this purpose, a twofold objective is pursued: 1) identifying the existence of the fit between the core business of the company and the CSR activities undertaken by the company, to prove the ethics of the company; 2) identifying the possible fit between the communication of the company’s CSR activities and the consumers’ perception of the company’s ethical activities. The research is based on the case study methodology, which examines Ferrovie dello
Stato, through the analysis of secondary and primary data. The results confirm the existence of the first fit but deny the existence of the second fit.