Introduction: New Labour,the new public management and changing forms of human resource management

The existence of distinctive and durable business systems has been a well-researched feature of the ‘varieties of capitalism’ literature. Organizational practices of firms belonging to and operating in these business systems reflect institutional logics that are unique to each particular system. However, the last decade has seen a large growth in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&;A), including acquisitions by firms from one business system of firms from another. A model is presented, utilizing an institutional framework and focusing on the acquisition of Japanese companies by foreign firms, to analyse and predict the trajectory of organizational change in such cases.