The global nature of commerce means today's businesses are always looking for opportunities outside of their domestic markets.

Acquiring, or merging with, a foreign company is a common way to achieve this.

A report commissioned by Air France-KLM to try and work out what is causing tensions within the airline company has discovered that cultural differences between Dutch and French employees are potentially ripping the merger apart.

Air France-KLM, which is the result of a 2004 merger, asked Philippe d’Iribarne from the French Institute of Science and Niels Noorderhaven of Tilburg University, to carry out the research which involved 47 interviews with Air France and KLM staff between January and April 2017.