Product stewardship strategy (PSS) implementation creates ‘differentiation’ advantage for a firm. This paper presents a definition and measure of PSS. Based on an empirical analysis of 60 Indian firms known for their corporate citizenship behavior, it presents important features of PSS in a developing country like India. Results show that the firms are focusing on known, salient, and powerful stakeholders to run their existing business and are relatively less proactive in identifying new sets of stakeholders who might be critical in unknown circumstances. Firms are collaborating with upstream and downstream supply chain partners to design eco‐efficient products, and promoting their transformation toward sustainability with effective marketing and advertising campaigns. The firms are relatively more responsive than transparent so that they can balance the interests of all stakeholders. However, the firms are lagging in their commitment to go beyond regulatory norms. Further, the paper discusses some important managerial implications. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment