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Research Report: Taking a stand on social issues – Why? When? How?

André Pratte
André Pratte | Expert Panelist
July 7, 2022 LinkedIn icon

The CCPC is proud to announce the release of a new paper in partnership with Assistant Professor Dr. Rachel Ruttan, from the Rotman School of Management. “Taking a stand on social issues: Why? When? How?” explores the evolving trend of corporate activism and corporate involvement with the socio-political debates of our time. Specifically, the paper focuses on the role authenticity plays when corporations enter the discussion of social issues, and how corporate activism can serve to both the benefit and detriment of a company’s bottom line, depending on the way it is conducted.

We encourage you to learn more about this important topic by reviewing the full report.

 

About the report’s author

Rachel Ruttan holds a PhD in management and organizations from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Her research interests include compassion and prosocial behaviour, values and moral judgment. Specifically, she studies lapses in interpersonal compassion, as well as the potential pitfalls of organizations’ attempts to appeal to morals and values, showing when and how “doing well by doing good” can backfire. Her research has been published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes; Organization Science; the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology; Journal of Experimental Psychology: General; Journal of Experimental Social Psychology; and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. Her work has been profiled in The New York Times, NPR and The Harvard Business Review.

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About the author:

André Pratte | Expert Panelist
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The Honorable André Pratte is an Expert Panelist at the Canadian Centre for the Purpose of the Corporation (CCPC. André assumes the role after a successful career as a journalist spanning nearly 40 years.  Most of this time, he worked for La Presse, Canada’s foremost French language newspaper. From 2001 to 2015, he was the paper’s Chief Editorial Writer and was part of the company’s management team.

In 2016,  André was appointed to the Senate as an independent Senator. Disappointed by the partisanship that still dominated the Senate, he resigned from this position in 2019.

In 2022, André received an MBA from the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts.  Earlier in his career, he had studied economics at McGill University and received a B.A. in political science from the Université de Montréal.

Besides his journalism career, André wrote several books on history, the media and politics, including a biography of Wilfrid Laurier. He has spent years reflecting on issues such as crisis management, the media’s role in society, the social license to operate, businesses’ purpose, economic development, the exploitation of Canada’s immense natural resources, and climate change.

André also sits on the boards of The Lighthouse – Children and Families and of the Paul Gérin-Lajoie Foundation.