Sustainable and social procurement are growing practices being applied across the public and private sectors in different countries. Yet, little is known about the drivers for and wider impact of these strategic procurement approaches. Using an institutional theory perspective, we focus on social public procurement practice across local governments in Wales (UK) and the Netherlands to understand how and why community benefits policies are formulated and enacted in these different yet comparable institutional environments. The research sheds light for public procurement practitioners and for academics, contributes to nascent research on the social aspects of purchasing and supply management.