The impact of national institutional context on social practices: comparing Finnish and US business communities

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This paper investigates the impact of national institutional contexts on firms' socially responsible practices, the motives for such practices and methods of organising social practices. Surveys of firms in a liberal market economy (USA) and those in a coordinated market economy (Finland) are compared. Findings indicate that social practices differ between the contexts, providing empirical support for the theory of explicit and implicit forms of corporate social responsibility. The paper offers insight into how social practices are organised in different contexts and a new conceptualisation of the motives for social responsibility. Results suggest that national institutional context should be accounted for in empirical studies of business social practices.