Strategic imperatives, power and subsidiary performance: the transfer of human resource management practices in multinational companies operating in Poland's post‐socialist banking industry

We examine the extent to which institutional influences account for the transfer of performance management systems in two foreign‐owned banks, one German the other Irish, in Poland. While we find they were important, more important were the joint effects arising from the subsidiaries' times‐of‐acquisition, their pre‐acquisition economic health, the international experience of the MNCs' management, headquarters‐generated strategic imperatives and the political dynamics that ensued between corporate and local management.