The economic contracts theory suggests that their conception as well as their implementation is independent from the cultural context. Still, what the actors bear in mind when “contracting” varies from a country to another, according to the right and acceptable way of working and living–together that is prevalent locally. We will illustrate this idea through three examples : the variety of relationships between a development bank and its clients; the way a company describes its customer relation process in France and in the USA; the client/supplier relationship among Chinese companies. In addition, we shall see that the role played by the contractual reference in the functioning of both companies and economies is intimately linked to the American vision of the society.