Background: The ethnic subcultural consumer is a valuable segment in the multicultural societies of today, which has received little attention from both marketers and researchers. One of the most multicultural cities in Sweden is Malmoe, with 38% of its habitants having a foreign background. For IKEA Malmoe this segment has long been of interest, but have found it hard to increase their diversity among customers. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to help IKEA Malmoe get a greater understanding of the ethnic subcultural consumption behaviour, to attract a higher cultural diversity among customers. This research paper will explore why IKEA Malmoe is not reaching a greater cultural diversity of customers today, and offer insights to how they could work, through their local marketing, to attract this segment. Delimitation: This study will be delimited to the subject of ethnic subcultural consumption behaviour in the area of retail marketing. The research will focus on general consumption behaviour; how consumption is influenced by culture; both the originating culture and the hosting culture; and for the empirical investigation, how ethnic consumption is related to IKEA. Method: The research is a qualitative study with an deductive stance, based on the semi- structured interviews of 14 respondents from eight different subcultures of Malmoe. Result/ Conclusion: The findings of this research showed that it is essential not to see the ethnic subcultural consumer as one homogenous segment, as aspects such as acculturation, age, income and lifestyle were shown to have greater impact on consumption behaviour than national culture. Proposed continued studies: To more thoroughly research the affect of acculturation and national culture as an aspect to ethnic subcultural behaviour, using a homogenous group of respondents

Nowadays, companies face many difficulties due to the much competitive environment they have to evolve in. Therefore, multinational ones, particularly dealing with customers and employees, as well as competitors worldwide, have to take all the tools available into consideration to be able to stay afloat, or, at best, to be successful. Culture can be one of those efficient tools that can be used to make sure that the company will gain competitive advantages on the long run. However, the development of a strategy based on cultural aspects is not that easy as culture is a very complex and hardly understandable phenomenon – no matter if it is national culture, or, as here in this thesis, corporate. Thus, as this thesis focus on the employee’s side, it is obvious to imagine that the more numerous the countries, in which IKEA as the focused company wants to be present, are, the harder it will be to deal with cultural aspects and then to be successful thanks to a correct understanding on every side. How does a multinational company deal with culture within the company and across borders? This above research question is the base of our research process. It seems indeed to be interesting to focus on a company implemented all over the world to wonder then whether this company manages to deal with cultural differences when crossing borders IKEA as a multinational company is then an example that can be used to write such a thesis. On the one hand, it is a company which deeply plays with its image and culture and broadcast a particular corporate culture based on Swedish roots. On the other hand, IKEA, since the 1970’s, has successfully tried to cross borders first in Europe and then in Asia facing then unexpected problems among the employees, for instance. As culture is not a notion that implies easily calculation and numbers, it seems natural to use meetings and interviews to lead the research. To feel the culture and to understand its process, a direct access into the Swedish company has to be part of the method used for this thesis. Otherwise, the thesis would be only based on secondary data which should be avoided in order to ensure reliability and validity. The theoretical framework for this thesis will contain the ideas and theories of researchers like E.H.Schein and R.Daft with the main focus on organizations, culture building and leadership as well as Jackson&Carter with their view on semiotics. Furthermore, regarding the transmission of cultural aspects, the ideas of “The Three Faces of Leadership” from Hatch and Kostera will also be taken into consideration. Furthermore many researchers in the past noticed that culture is more a source of conflict and complex outcome and situations rather than a mean to gather employees, people in general. The results of this thesis are that IKEA, in spite of its so called unique global culture is not totally successful in dealing with this complex notion of culture especially among employees across borders. Indeed, IKEA’s managers tend to forget to take the many particularities of national and regional cultures into consideration, they deal with everywhere in the world. Although it came out that in many countries which are culturally close to Sweden the leader and managers efficiently transmit the core beliefs and values to the employees.

Denna studie som utförts på uppdrag från Smålandsidrotten och Regionalt elitidrottscentrum belyser framgångskulturen i de tre småländska idrottsföreningarna HV71, Kalmar FF och Lejonen speedway, som 2008 vann SM-guld i de tre största arenaidrotterna. Syftet är att beskriva, jämföra och analysera hur dessa tre föreningar organiserar sig för att nå idrottslig framgång. I studien har en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod använts där sex intervjuer har genomförts med nyckelpersoner i föreningarna, såsom klubb- och sportchef, vilket ledde till att det blev två intervjuer i respektive förening. Strukturen på intervjuerna såg olika ut beroende på vilka arbetsuppgifter respondenten hade med utgångspunkt från deras formella titel. Klubbcheferna fick svara på frågor angående organisation och struktur, medan sportcheferna fick svara på frågor om den sportsliga verksamheten. Resultatet av studien visar på att identiteten för föreningarna är väldigt viktig men att den inte ser likadan ut i alla föreningar. Studien pekar alltså inte på att det finns ett konstant sätt att bygga identiteter utan att den istället ska vara uppbyggd utifrån rådande förutsättningar. Personalen och kontinuiteten framförs även ha stor betydelse där personalen ska ha ett hjärta för föreningen och viljan att utveckla sig. Samtidigt vill alla dessa föreningar ligga i framkant och vara nyskapande, för att hela tiden utveckla föreningen. Studien pekar även på idrottens tudelade miljö där idrottsföreningarna dels uppträder i en ideell miljö och dels i en professionell miljö vilket påverkar hur de ser på framgång och vilka mål de har. De framför hur de ska vara framgångsrika ekonomiskt och deltagarmässigt men att den idrottsliga verksamheten fungerar som katalysator vilket gör att fokus ligger på att utveckla föreningens möjligheter till goda idrottsliga resultat. I analysen ställs det empiriska materialet mot de valda teorierna för att stärka de tolkningar som görs och utifrån den diskuteras sedan hur studien kan leda till vidareutveckling inom idrottsområdet och det framförs även hur studien kan ligga till grund för vidare forskning.

Idag finns en avsiktsplan för en etablering av ett IKEA-varuhus i Umeå och det råder en oro bland handlare samtidigt som en förväntan sprider sig bland umeåborna. Kommunen hade tidigare planer på att utveckla Klockarbäckens handelsområde men då möjligheten om ett IKEA dök upp ändrades avsikterna. Visionen är idag en nyetablering av ett nytt handelsområde vid stadens södra entré. Hur konsumenter handlar, deras kriterier, var och när de handlar är viktiga aspekter när det gäller konsumentbeteende, vilket är huvudämnet som kommer att behandlas i denna uppsats. Lojalitet är en annan viktig aspekt inom konsumentbeteendet, och det vi ville studera är hur lojala konsumenter är mot de butiker och handelsområden de handlar på idag och vad som händer med en konsuments lojalitet vid nyetableringar. Syftet med denna studie har varit att kartlägga konsumenters grad av lojalitet till befintliga handelsområden idag och hur denna skulle komma att förändras i och med en externetablering av ett fjärde handelsområde vad gäller ett IKEA-varuhus i Umeå. Vårt syfte kommer även vara att förklara skillnader mellan olika grupper samt redogöra för de effekter som en etablering kan medföra. Vi har genom en omfattande enkätundersökning identifierat hur konsumenter i Umeå uppskattar sin lojalitet idag och hur de tror att denna kan komma att förändras i och med en nyetablering av ett nytt handelsområde. Våra resultat visar att Umeås konsumenter i stor utsträckning idag är mycket lojala till sina valda handelsområden. Trots detta uttrycker majoriteten av alla respondenter att deras lojalitet kommer att förändras till förmån för det nya handelsområdet Entré Syd och IKEA. Vidare visar resultatet tydliga indikationer på att Strömpilen och Klockarbäcken är de handelsområden som kommer drabbas hårdast av nyetableringen.

The aim of this thesis is to explore and illustrate empirically how brand values are co-created in communication by users on a corporate Facebook page. The text from two months of conversa-tion on IKEA Sweden’s Facebook page has been analyzed using qualitative and quantitative meth-ods. The concept of value co-creation has been excessively discussed in marketing literature during the last decades. In co-creation the customers, or stakeholders, create value together with the brands, but how this happens in communication on the social media remains to be further exam-ined. This thesis takes a close perspective of the phenomenon and the result shows how a few brand values of the IKEA brand are recurrently reinforced in the text communication as IKEA and other users of their Facebook page share practical advices, emotions, and thoughts. The communication is surprisingly friendly and supportive, the atmosphere reminds of a big family, an IKEA family, even though users don’t know each other. The social values appear to be of fun-damental importance as one of the world’s largest furnisher retailers uses the world’s largest social media, and these values are co-created between the users in the IKEA Facebook community. Fur-thermore, there is a brand value of IKEA explaining that IKEA understands their customers living situations and needs. This value is continuously co-created as employees of IKEA talks with cus-tomers and learn from what is said, commented and suggested on their corporate Facebook page.

When the generation of experience economy coming, customers are becoming care if the products or services which are company provide is what they need. Customers want what let them feel dizzy, what is able to touch their mind, stimulate their think, what is related to them, and also the product or marketing activities is connected to their life style(Pine II & Gilmore, 1999¡FSchmitt, 1999), it means that experience economy is becoming a trend of product consuming. Therefore, this study attempt to quote the Comprehensive model raised by Cronin, Brady and Hult (2000) and the Cognitive Model raised by Oliver(1980) as basic research frames, to prove the following goals of this study. After consumers which have been shopping in IKEA cognize the experiential value, whether their cognition will affect consumers¡¦ satisfaction or not. In addition, consumers will have the brand loyalty to IKEA. According to the result, it provides some suggestions to their experiential marketing. According to the results, consumers¡¦ experiential value will affect consumer satisfaction positively. When consumers¡¦ satisfaction becomes higher, and their brand loyalty becomes higher. In addition, when consumers¡¦ experiential value of playfulness becomes higher, and their brand loyalty becomes higher. However, some kinds of experiential value including aesthetics, service excellence and customer ROI have to let consumer have consumer satisfaction, then it can make consumers have loyalty to the brand.

<p>This Bachelor degree thesis deals with the strategies that IKEA has adopted in France since its establishment up to now. It is essentially based on interview with the person responsible for the public relations of IKEA France. But, other sources were used concerning our empirical findings: IKEA’s brochures, surveys from researchers… The purpose of the thesis is to explain and illustrate how a company succeeded to establish abroad, by applying a domestic concept. This issue is of importance because it provides information for the reader who would like to know how a company can be export all over the world by adapting its policy to the local specificities. It identifies and gives explanations about the marketing strategies implemented to export the IKEA concept to the French market.</p>

<p>Nowadays, companies face many difficulties due to the much competitive environment they have to evolve in. Therefore, multinational ones, particularly dealing with customers</p><p>and employees, as well as competitors worldwide, have to take all the tools available into consideration to be able to stay afloat, or, at best, to be successful. Culture can be one of those efficient tools that can be used to make sure that the company will gain competitive</p><p>advantages on the long run.</p><p>However, the development of a strategy based on cultural aspects is not that easy as culture is a very complex and hardly understandable phenomenon – no matter if it is national culture, or, as here in this thesis, corporate. Thus, as this thesis focus on the employee’s side, it is obvious to imagine that the more numerous the countries, in which IKEA as the focused company wants to be present, are, the harder it will be to deal with cultural aspects and then to be successful thanks to a correct understanding on every side.</p><p>How does a multinational company deal with culture within</p><p>the company and across borders?</p><p>This above research question is the base of our research process. It seems indeed to be interesting to focus on a company implemented all over the world to wonder then whether this company manages to deal with cultural differences when crossing borders IKEA as a multinational company is then an example that can be used to write such a thesis. On the one hand, it is a company which deeply plays with its image and culture and broadcast a particular corporate culture based on Swedish roots. On the other hand, IKEA, since the 1970’s, has successfully tried to cross borders first in Europe and then in Asia facing then unexpected problems among the employees, for instance.</p><p>As culture is not a notion that implies easily calculation and numbers, it seems natural to use meetings and interviews to lead the research. To feel the culture and to understand its process, a direct access into the Swedish company has to be part of the method used for</p><p>this thesis. Otherwise, the thesis would be only based on secondary data which should be avoided in order to ensure reliability and validity.</p><p>The theoretical framework for this thesis will contain the ideas and theories of researchers like E.H.Schein and R.Daft with the main focus on organizations, culture building and leadership as well as Jackson&Carter with their view on semiotics. Furthermore, regarding the transmission of cultural aspects, the ideas of “The Three Faces of Leadership” from Hatch and Kostera will also be taken into consideration.</p><p>Furthermore many researchers in the past noticed that culture is more a source of conflict and complex outcome and situations rather than a mean to gather employees, people in general.</p><p>The results of this thesis are that IKEA, in spite of its so called unique global culture is not totally successful in dealing with this complex notion of culture especially among employees across borders. Indeed, IKEA’s managers tend to forget to take the many particularities of national and regional cultures into consideration, they deal with everywhere in the world. Although it came out that in many countries which are culturally close to Sweden the leader and managers efficiently transmit the core beliefs and values to the employees.</p>

<p>Denna studie som utförts på uppdrag från Smålandsidrotten och Regionalt elitidrottscentrum belyser framgångskulturen i de tre småländska idrottsföreningarna HV71, Kalmar FF och Lejonen speedway, som 2008 vann SM-guld i de tre största arenaidrotterna. Syftet är att beskriva, jämföra och analysera hur dessa tre föreningar organiserar sig för att nå idrottslig framgång.</p><p>I studien har en kvalitativ undersökningsmetod använts där sex intervjuer har genomförts med nyckelpersoner i föreningarna, såsom klubb- och sportchef, vilket ledde till att det blev två intervjuer i respektive förening. Strukturen på intervjuerna såg olika ut beroende på vilka arbetsuppgifter respondenten hade med utgångspunkt från deras formella titel. Klubbcheferna fick svara på frågor angående organisation och struktur, medan sportcheferna fick svara på frågor om den sportsliga verksamheten.</p><p>Resultatet av studien visar på att identiteten för föreningarna är väldigt viktig men att den inte ser likadan ut i alla föreningar. Studien pekar alltså inte på att det finns ett konstant sätt att bygga identiteter utan att den istället ska vara uppbyggd utifrån rådande förutsättningar. Personalen och kontinuiteten framförs även ha stor betydelse där personalen ska ha ett hjärta för föreningen och viljan att utveckla sig. Samtidigt vill alla dessa föreningar ligga i framkant och vara nyskapande, för att hela tiden utveckla föreningen. Studien pekar även på idrottens tudelade miljö där idrottsföreningarna dels uppträder i en ideell miljö och dels i en professionell miljö vilket påverkar hur de ser på framgång och vilka mål de har. De framför hur de ska vara framgångsrika ekonomiskt och deltagarmässigt men att den idrottsliga verksamheten fungerar som katalysator vilket gör att fokus ligger på att utveckla föreningens möjligheter till goda idrottsliga resultat.</p><p>I analysen ställs det empiriska materialet mot de valda teorierna för att stärka de tolkningar som görs och utifrån den diskuteras sedan hur studien kan leda till vidareutveckling inom idrottsområdet och det framförs även hur studien kan ligga till grund för vidare forskning.</p>

Date: June 4, 2008 Level: Master Thesis EFO705, 10 points (15 credits) Authors: Wannapa Chaletanone (05-11-1982, Thailand) Wanee Cheancharadpong (03-09-1983, Thailand) Title: Internationalization of IKEA in the Japanese and Chinese markets Supervisor: Leif Linnskog Problems: Why did IKEA internationalize into Japanese and Chinese markets? And what factors did influence IKEA’s success in Chinese market but failure in the Japanese market of the first round? Purpose: The aim of thesis is to understand the internationalization of IKEA in Asia by comparing between Japanese and Chinese markets. Method: This master thesis based on qualitative approach in order to investigate the internationalization of IKEA in Asian markets as a case study since it is beneficial in understanding the observation and explanation of behavior in the certain cases. Conclusion: IKEA is considered as retailer internationalization who expands into Japanese market as a result of deregulation and asset-based advantage while internationalize into Chinese market because of supporting environments such as political, social and economic conditions as well as transaction advantage. To success and failure, psychic distance and learning, strategic decision making process, degree of adaptation of retail offer, entry strategy, characteristics of organization and management characteristics are the influencing factors on internationalization of IKEA in the Japanese and Chinese markets.