A Kaiser Permanente California case study: 'Opinion leader' stakeholder perceptions of corporate community involvement and external corporate social responsibility

Early research and traditional corporate practices categorized corporate social responsibility efforts pertaining to the community as discretionary, such as charitable giving and employee volunteerism. Current research however illustrates a paradigm shift in which social responsibility efforts are no longer considered by top executives as voluntary, rather they are a business imperative.;Social responsibility has been cited as one of the more ambiguously defined and intangible assets that contribute to reputation. This dissertation was part of a larger case study of Kaiser Permanente California's social performance. Kaiser Permanente is a nonprofit, group-practice health maintenance organization (HMO) dedicated to medical care and not stockholder profit. The purpose of the study was to explore the effectiveness of the organization's social performance and reputation as defined by Kaiser Permanente's external stakeholders, specifically key opinion leaders.;This dissertation followed a stakeholder model framework and used quantitative research as its primary method. However, a preliminary qualitative study, using a sociological design based on grounded theory and consisting of stakeholder interviews, as well as current literature, served as the basis for this quantitative study. The preliminary study investigated "What shapes key opinion leaders' perceptions around social responsibility and social performance?" Three primary domains emerged: philanthropy, employee volunteerism and community partnerships, and were combined with corporate social responsibility to develop a model of corporate community involvement.;A survey instrument was constructed to examine the relationship between external stakeholders' perceptions of corporate community involvement (specifically, philanthropy, employee volunteerism and community partnerships) and stakeholder perceptions of corporate social responsibility. The study found that all three variables were significantly positively related to corporate social responsibility, however when combined, only community partnerships significantly predicted corporate social responsibility. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.