Searching for flexible and competitive remuneration, financial participation has come into focus for both practitioners and scientists. The question of determinants and outcomes of financial participation schemes has been of special interest. Although many excellent studies have been conducted recently, further theory-based and empirically tested research would enrich our understanding of financial participation. Taking the examples of three European countries, namely Great Britain, France and Germany, we examine the explanatory power of neoinstitutionalist arguments in discussing financial participation. The hypotheses generated are tested empirically based on the data of the Cranfield Network on International Strategic Human Resource Management (Cranet). © 2006 Arbetslivinstitutel.