It has been widely recognized that corporate efforts to engage with primary stakeholders is vital when seeking to develop environmentally sustainable businesses. This study proposes a testable model that incorporates causal and outcome variables for stakeholder engagement to investigate the moderating effect of chain affiliation on the relationship between the significant variables; managements’ environmental values and leadership (casual factors), stakeholder engagement, environmental performance, and restaurant performance (outcome factors). A web-based survey was administered to top restaurant managers in the United States, and multigroup structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data. It was found that chain affiliation significantly moderated the relationships between the variables in the proposed model. Specifically, managers’ environmental values were found to be important predictors of stakeholder engagement for chain restaurants compared with independent restaurants, and that managers’ environmental leadership was an essential determinant of stakeholder engagement for independent restaurants rather than for chain restaurants. Even though it was not statistically significant, stakeholder engagement was found to be a more critical factor in promoting a restaurant’s environmental sustainability in chain restaurants than in independent restaurants. The effect of environmental sustainability on the financial and nonfinancial performance was found to be similar for both chain and independent restaurants. Theoretical and managerial implications are also offered.
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