How Are Large Firms Integrating Environmental Requirements? Stakeholders' Engagement, Environmental Disclosure, and Financial Value Creation

In recent years, companies have been subjected to great pressures from different stakeholders, including the integration of environmental requirements and the need to disclose information related to these environmental changes. In addition, the conflict of interests existing has led some large companies to integrate the interests of certain stakeholders in a superficial or symbolic way, without carrying out the required integration process within the strategic decisions. From the theoretical approaches of agency and stakeholders, bridging the gap between governance theory and stakeholder engagement literature, this paper delves into the phenomenon known as stakeholders' engagement and the company's response to this integration, in a superficial or deep way, through the disclosure of environmental information. The results of an analysis of a sample of 540 large US companies over a 13‐year period reveal that independent directors play a dual role: promoting environmental communication with stakeholders' expectations and subsequently driving substantive environmental strategies that go beyond mere regulatory compliance. The article thus presents a progressive model in which effective environmental disclosure depends on the integration of stakeholder interests into corporate strategy. Our results also contribute to extend Porter's hypothesis by demonstrating that long‐term value creation associated with environmental performance depends on the substantive nature of the company's environmental strategy, which is actively facilitated by independent directors.