From Responsibility to Requirement: COVID, Cars, and the Future of Corporate Social Responsibility in Canada

David Benjamin Billedeau; Jeffrey Wilson; Naima Samuel

From Responsibility to Requirement: COVID, Cars, and the Future of Corporate Social Responsibility in Canada

David Benjamin Billedeau; Jeffrey Wilson; Naima Samuel

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant impacts to the automotive manufacturing industry. Despite substantial financial uncertainty, disruptions to supply chains, and shutdowns of manufacturing operations, automotive firms supported crisis response efforts throughout the course of the pandemic. Drawing on interviews with all the consumer automotive manufacturing companies in Canada (Ford, General Motors, Honda, Stellantis, and Toyota) as well as the two largest global automotive parts suppliers operating in Canada (Linamar and Magna), we investigated whether voluntary corporate responses to COVID-19 will shape long-term corporate social responsibility programs or simply constitute one-off crisis management actions. Ultimately, we argue that while Canada&rsquo:s pandemic response efforts have benefitted from the voluntary involvement of automotive manufacturing companies, the limited coordination between stakeholders underscores the need for greater public sector oversight of the relationship between society and the private sector. To ensure preparedness for meeting new challenges, such as climate change, we call for the era of voluntary corporate social responsibility programs to yield to a period of corporate social requirements.

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