Transfer of Employment Practices, Varieties of Capitalism, and National Employment Systems. A Review

National employment systems are changing primarily through the activities of multinational enterprises (MNEs). In order to understand in how far national employment systems are susceptible to change, we revisit important quantitative empirical studies published since 1994 on the transfer of employment practices within MNEs. Three propositions are derived from a neo-institutional approach, and evidence for all of the three was found when re-analysing the empirical papers. Firstly, human resource practices are more often transferred than industrial relations practices. Secondly, HR practices are more often transferred from a liberal market economy (such as the USA) to a coordinated market economy (such as Germany) than vice versa. Thirdly, some adoption of HR practices common in the USA points to a dominance effect. Overall, the findings show that an uneven change in national employment systems is to be expected from the transfer of practices within MNEs. The limits of the analysis and further routes for research are discussed in the concluding section of the paper.