ABSTRACT
Culture and institutional theory Since Buckley (2002) pointed out the importance of the interplay of national cultures and the need for comparative research, international management researchers have broadened their focus beyond culture, to the influence of institutions, arguing that institutional theory provides greater explanatory power (Kostova et al., 2008; Peng, 2006; Peng and Pleggenkuhle-Miles, 2009; Shenkar, 2001; Singh, 2007). Singh (2007) specifically argued that culture is typically a microlevel construct (supported by Tsui et al., 2007) and lacks the ability to predict macro-level concepts. Institutional theory, on the other hand, is able to describe to describe both formal (e.g. rules and regulations) and informal institutions (e.g.
