While last August some of the world's largest businesses vowed a new era of corporate social responsibility, in the midst of a global economic crisis, many of these firms are acting in ways that seem to reinforce the shareholder primacy model they ostensibly rejected, according to the New York Times.

In August 2019, the Business Roundtable—an association of CEOs that count among their ranks Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Bank of America's Brian Moynihan, BlackRock's Larry Fink and JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon—issued a statement saying that the purpose of the corporation is to deliver value to all stakeholders, not just its investors. While paying homage to the free market capitalist system as "the best means of generating good jobs, a strong and sustainable economy, innovation, a healthy environment and economic opportunity for all," the statement noted that corporations have a responsibility to more than just their shareholders. The CEOs behind the statement said they also have a commitment to their customers, their employees, their suppliers and the communities in which they work.

About a month later, the CEOs clarified that dramatic change is unlikely to happen, as they said that they signed on because they believed the statement described what they were already doing anyway. This, perhaps, is why calls to back their statement up with a registration as a B corporation fell on deaf ears.

Now, in the spring of 2020, the Times is reporting that many of these same companies have engaged in a number of actions contradicting their earlier rhetoric. Many have engaged in stock buybacks and dividends that benefit shareholders, while their employees complain that not enough has been done to protect them from infection, despite revenues being impossible without their work. And that's if employees still have jobs in the first place: Many workers have simply been laid off or furloughed. The Times did report, however, that some firms are making efforts to protect their workers. It cited Apple, which is continuing to pay staff despite store closures. The Business Roundtable, for its part, said that CEOs are continuing to act in ways that align with the principles of last year's statement, and that its members have simply had to make excruciating choices in order to survive.