This paper examines those aspects of national institutions that affect corporate governance mechanisms at international level. The study uses the 'varieties of capitalism' approach, which is concerned with the way companies interact strategically to solve the coordination problems arising from their activities. This research is based on a sample of countries operating in coordinated market economies and liberal market economies. The data were collected from the Thomson Reuters database. The findings suggest that the institutional context is associated with several corporate governance mechanisms. Specifically, our results find that the proportion of female directors on boards and the presence of corporate governance committees are higher in firms operating in liberal market economies than in those domiciled in coordinated market economies. Regarding the disclosure of corporate social responsibility information, the evidence shows that it is not affected by the varieties of capitalism measured, whereas board‐specific skills are higher in the latter than in the former. This paper offers empirical evidence at international level for the varieties of capitalism that contribute to better corporate governance structures. With regard to managerial implications, our findings show that belonging (or not) to a specific variety of capitalism impacts various mechanisms of corporate governance