CPRT Expert Dialogue: Corporate Political Responsibility and Commercial Determinants of Health: How Business Influences Policies That Affect People’s Health

The communications and actions of companies and industries influence policy outcomes, including policies that affect people’s health, positively or negatively, directly or indirectly. One example of a large-scale industry with both influence and dependency upon policy outcomes is the U.S. firearms industry. Lecturer in Inequalities and Global Health Policy Nason Maani recently worked on a collaborative study examining the ways in which the firearm industry and industry-associated organizations frame firearms, firearm-related harms, and possible solutions to gun violence. 

Using the experience and outcomes of this study as an example, we will discuss with Maani how industries such as the firearms industry influence policy outcomes and what it would mean for companies to influence policies responsibly with concern to public health impacts. Please join us for our next Expert Dialogue with Maani to discuss: 

• What are commercial determinants of health, and how do these play out in the U.S. firearms industry?  
• What role does public policy play in the commercial determinants of health? 
• What would it mean for companies to influence these policies responsibly?  
• How can the public better ensure that policymakers consider public health impacts? 

Dr. Nason Maani is a Lecturer in Inequalities and Global Health Policy at the University of Edinburgh and a Harkness Fellow and Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His research focuses on structural and corporate determinants of health, seeking to describe the various drivers and channels through which upstream determinants such as equity, the generation of knowledge and public discourse, and commercial actors affect population health.

The Corporate Political Responsibility Taskforce (CPRT) Expert Dialogues are in-depth, recorded conversations with academic experts, stakeholder advocates, and business practitioners to provide our members and other CPR champions with the expertise and context they need to develop principled, proactive CPR strategies. 

Find more information on the CPRT website or contact Elizabeth Doty at [email protected]. 

The CPRT’s Expert Dialogue recordings are available by request as video modules, audio modules, or transcripts. Please email Taskforce Director Elizabeth Doty at [email protected] to request access.

The CPRT is strictly non-partisan and does not advocate, promote or support any political party or candidate. While speakers and participants in the Expert Dialogues may express their views freely, the CPRT does not endorse particular organizations, individuals, parties, policies or legislation.