Ett väggfäst möbelsystem som riktar sig till mindre boenden med en stramare budget, som uppmuntrar till flexibilitet och personanpassning.

Interactive product visualisation (IPV) addresses the shortcomings of product visualisation on e-commerce sites, such as the absence of tactile information and the inability to directly examine products. Previous research has not addressed the influence of IPV on customer satisfaction. Therefore, the objective of this study was to address this gap by investigating factors that may influence customer satisfaction. The Stimulus-Organism-Response (SOR) model was used as a lens to further investigate the effect of stimuli of an IPV environment on the affective states of users as well as satisfaction as a response to stimuli. The furniture e-commerce industry and IKEA’s IPV tool were selected as the basis for this research. To gather data, an online survey with 5-point Likert scales was created based on previous research to discover the relationships between these factors. A total of 115 questionnaire responses were validated and analysed using multiple regression analysis. The results of the analysis indicated that interactivity, perceived ease of use, and entertainment had a positive influence on customer satisfaction as mediated by pleasure and dominance. Practical implications are presented to guide businesses that seek to implement IPV effectively.

ABSTRACT Background: The marketing efforts made by firms have been forced to change dramatically during the past year as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Online communication and social media platforms have seen a boom in users and firms have been forced to switch both their sales and marketing efforts to the online world. By applying the definition and observable characteristics of Social Media Marketing Strategies (SMMS) in combination with Consumer Engagement Theory, the authors of this paper aim to explore which strategies have been applied by three IKEA Instagram accounts and how social media users are reacting to these applied SMMSs in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Problem: It has previously been suggested to conduct further studies on the combination of social media and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) in order to help firms develop stronger and more meaningful consumer relationships. Researchers further suggest that there is a current research gap regarding the factors which might influence user-generated content (such as comments), positive Word of Mouth (WoM) and brand engagement among social media users. Further it was recognized that social media reaches across national borders which leaves room for cross-cultural research to be made on the following consequences.  Purpose: The exploratory purpose of this study aims in developing a deeper understanding of the applied SMMSs by firms and the resulting consumer engagement as well as social media user’s reactions to those strategies. Research Questions: “What social media marketing strategies (SMMSs) are IKEA applying during the COVID-19 pandemic?” and, “How do social media users respond to IKEA’s social media marketing strategies (SMMSs) during the COVID-19 Pandemic?” Method: With a relativist ontology and social constructionist epistemology, the study inductively explores the SMMSs applied by three Instagram accounts from the retailer IKEA in Australia, UK and Sweden. Through a case study-approach and the application of qualitative content analysis, the accounts have been analyzed and coded separately by two independent researchers. Intercoder reliability was measured between the researchers through Cohen’s Kappa. The findings from each case were then compared in a cross-case analysis. Practical Implications: This research will help marketing managers by providing insights into how consumers respond and perceive different SMMS during the COVID-19 pandemic and to enhance their consumer engagement by adapting an appropriate communication strategy to reach their business objectives. Result and Conclusions: Within the chosen timeframe of 6 months during COVID-19, the analyzed IKEA accounts applied disparate SMMS, namely, ‘Social Commerce Strategy’, ‘Social Content Analysis’ and ‘Social Monitoring Strategy’. The Instagram users' reactions differed across the three accounts, where the strategy which received the most positive consumer reactions, as well as the highest level of consumer engagement, was the ‘Social Content Strategy’ which was applied by IKEA Australia. Thus, the findings suggest that the three Instagram accounts apply unique SMMSs adapted to each country and thus achieve distinctive results in terms of consumer engagement.

Narratives in corporate storytelling is a powerful and persuasive tool for validation of Corporate Social Responsibility. To further their social mission, IKEA partner with social entrepreneurs, a collaboration which produce products or services for IKEA while creating incomes for the social entrepreneurs, claimed by IKEA as a win-win. In this thesis, the win-win narrative is analysed with a management theory applied in a critical perspective in conjunction with a narrative method. The aim is to investigate the validity of the win-win narrative produced by IKEA in this partnership to identify to what extent this narrative meets the reality of IKEAs CSR and human rights commitments. Issues investigated are to what end this narrative is produced, what is the dominant narrative, what is not presented and how are the social entrepreneurs represented in the IKEA narrative.

Storbritannien präglades på 1990-talet av politiskt och kulturellt nytänkande med New Labour och kulturfenomenet Cool Britannia samtidigt som IKEA försökte etablera sig i landet. Min diskurshistoriska analys undersöker hur IKEAs reklamkampanjer “Chuck out your chintz” och “Stop being so English” anpassades till framväxande föreställningar om ett nytt Storbritannien. Studien motiveras av att det finns ett forskningsgap när det gäller IKEAs reklamanpassning i nationella marknader och utgår från Douglas B. Holts kulturella varumärkesteori om hur varumärken blir ikoniska genom identitetsmyter som riktar sig till kulturella motsättningar. Resultaten pekar på interdiskursivitet i New Labours och IKEAs kommunikation med ett ideologiskt narrativ om ett modernt och klasslöst samhälle. I “Stop being so English” framträder även en ideologi om sexuell liberalism som kopplas ihop med IKEAs svenska betoning i sin marknadsföring. Analysen indikerar att IKEA konstruerade en identitetsmyt som jämnade ut kulturella motsättningar om social klass och nationell identitet där människor kunde delta i det nya Storbritannien som konsumenter. Då företag som IKEA använder kulturell marknadsföring kan reklam tillämpas i idéhistoriska undersökningar för att belysa samhällsförändringar. Reklam kan vara ett kulturellt uttryck som är bärare av föreställningar och genom att identifiera identitetsmyter i reklamen kan man urskilja de ideologier som verkar i en kultur.

IKEA is a brand that is known around the world and because it features many markers in their products, operations, and marketing that showcase its country of origin, Sweden has gained worldwide recognition simultaneously. The tourism industry could benefit from this positive image that Sweden has gained through IKEA’s popularity, by marketing themselves among the brand’s consumers using that positive image. Recently, Visit Sweden, the national DMO of the said country, has developed the campaign ‘Discover the Originals’ that responds to IKEA’s link with Sweden and tries to include tourism in that image among consumers. This quantitative study aims to see whether such campaigns that respond to the product-country image of private companies are effective in impacting the travel intention of the companies’ consumers. The first research question aims to find out the impact of IKEA’s product-country image on the intention of Belgian IKEA customers to travel to Sweden. This will be analysed by interpreting the correlation between brand image and country image as the independent variable and travel intention as the dependent variable. The second research question on the other hand will evaluate whether the ‘Discover the Originals’ campaign that is developed by Visit Sweden to respond to IKEA’s strong relationship with its country of origin, is increasing intention to travel to Sweden. The study confirms the applicability of previous research on the specific case of Belgian IKEA customers, given that the positive product-country image of IKEA on other foreign markets was already supported. Using the results of an online questionnaire that was distributed in relevant Facebook groups with members that were residing in cities spread over Belgium, analyses were made and interpreted. This delivered results that are aligned with the findings from existing literature. Positive product-country image impacts visit intentions after being exposed to the campaign, which indicates that the campaign is in particular valuable when targeting IKEA customers as brand familiarity and -image play an important role in how the audience reacts to it. These results reveal the opportunity for DMOs and private companies to work together and strengthen each other’s brands while contributing to the further development of the country as a tourist destination.

The development of new technologies is changing the world as we know it. Augmented reality (AR) is one of many new technological innovations that have been dominating the tech industry and, as a result, our everyday lives. AR takes the digital user experience to a whole other level, while more and more e-commerce marketers are adopting the technology within their platforms. Considering the many different gadgets and digital devices that most individuals use on a daily basis, it is of utmost importance for product designers to craft effective yet user-centered digital experiences. Hassenzahl's model of user experience formed the theoretical framework of this qualitative case study, while the design thinking methodology was adopted as this study’s aim is to examine the user experience design of IKEA Place from a user perspective. In order to empathize with the end users, a user experience (UX) research was conducted through semi-structured interviews, where IKEA Place users gave their insights in regards to their experience with the AR product.    The empirical results of this case study showed that the interviewed users found the purpose of the app along with its interface to be very appealing, and despite the fact that various limitations, some having higher impact than others, were spotted by all users in connection to the pragmatic attributes of IKEA Place, their individual experience did vary. The users who had been exposed to similar products or other technologies had a better experience with the AR app compared to the users who are less tech savvy, as the latter found utilizing the app to be difficult. In addition, the lack of interconnectedness between IKEA Place and the main IKEA app was not mentioned as a prominent limitation by the users. With the user needs having been defined, the ideation, prototyping, and testing phases followed for the redesigned features to be finally crafted. Lastly, this case study has limitations addressed as suggestions for future research, including more data collection practices being used simultaneously along with a larger sample size for UX research and prototype testing purposes.

Denna uppsats behandlar definition och attraktion av så kallade “talanger”. Det identifierade problemet är organisationers utmaningar med att attrahera individer med önskvärd kompetens på en konkurrensutsatt marknad. Vidare utvecklas problemet när det samtidigt uppstår en global kris i form av en Covid-19 pandemi. Denna studie ämnar således att undersöka hur organisationen IKEA har attraherat talanger under Covid-19 pandemin utifrån deras synsätt på dessa. Forskningsmetoden var av kvalitativ ansats och uppsatsens empiri tar sin grund i semistrukturerade intervjuer. Analysen baseras på uppsatsens teoretiska ramverk kring talent management, employer branding och employee value proposition. Detta för att nå en slutsats kring hur IKEA har attraherat talanger under Covid-19 pandemin. Studiens slutsats är att IKEA definierar talanger genom ett objektorienterat synsätt. Samt att dessa har attraherats under pandemin genom fortsatt rekrytering, ett inifrån- och ut tänk, internrekrytering och genom att ha byggt ett starkt employee value proposition från grunden. Slutligen visar genomförd studie att IKEA inte upplevt större utmaningar med att attrahera talanger under Covid-19 pandemin än vad fallet annars varit.

Background: With the burgeoning volumes of data, efficient data transformation techniques are crucial. RDF mapping language has been recognized as a conventional method, whileIKEA the Knowledge graph’s approach brings a new perspective with tailored functions and schema definitions. Objectives: This study aims to compare the efficiency and effectiveness of the RDF mapping language (RML) and IKEA Knowledge graph(IKG) approaches in transforming JSON data into RDF format. It explores their performance across different complexity levels to provide insights into their strengths and limitations. Methods: We began our research by studying how professionals in the industry currently transform JSON data into Resource description framework(RDF) formats through a literature review. After gaining this understanding, we conducted practical experiments to compare the RDF mapping language (RML) and IKEA Knowledge graph(IKG)approaches at various complexity levels. We assessed user-friendliness, adaptability, execution time, and overall performance. This combined approach aimed to connect theoretical knowledge with experimental data transformation practices. Results: The results demonstrate the superiority of the IKEA Knowledge graph approach(IKG), particularly in intricate scenarios involving conditional mapping and external graph data lookup. It showcases the IKEA Knowledge Graph (IKG) method’s versatility and efficiency in managing diverse data transformation tasks. Conclusions: Through practical experimentation and thorough analysis, this study concludes that the IKEA Knowledge graph approach demonstrates superior performance in handling complex data transformations compared to the RDF mapping language (RML) approach. This research provides valuable insights for choosing an optimal data trans-formation approach based on the specific task complexities and requirements

I denna uppsats har jag studerat vad Corporate Social Resonsibility (sv. företags samhällsansvar) fyller för funktion när det kommer till implementeringen av de mänskliga rättigheterna i de land som multinationella företag har verksamhet i. Uppsatsen har sin utgångspunkt i, och har sin teoretiska förankring i FN:s deklaration om de mänskliga rättigheterna samt teorin om Corporate Social Responsibility. En fördjupad teoridel presenteras också där begrepp som det transnationella ansvarighetsglappet presenteras och även en kort diskussion kring den ansvarsutvidgning som skett och inte stater kan ses som enda aktörer för att förverkliga de mänskliga rättigheterna. Jag har använt mig av en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med beskrivande inslag, vilket innebär att jag genom studien haft ett tolkande synsätt på den data som använts. Jag har läst en mängd litteratur för att få en överblick över diskursen för att senare fördjupa mig i delar som jag anser är väsentliga och har passat mina frågeställningar. Jag använder företagen Hennes & Mauritz, IKEA och Volvo för att såväl illustrera som styrka mina argument. Förutom akademisk litteratur har jag använt mig av företagens års- och hållbarhetsrapporter samt en del källor hämtade från internet.Uppsatsen diskuterar vilken roll CSR fyller för de mänskliga rättigheterna. Olika exempel på CSR verksamhet diskuteras med exempel från företagens verksamhet. Bland annat lyfts för vad och för vem företagen anser sig ansvariga för och även vilka områden företagen konkret arbetar för i sitt CSR-arbete. De valda företagen har valt att ansluta sig till FN-initiativet Global Compact vilket uppsatsen också berör. Det finns många argument mot CSR och bland annat företagens motiv kritiseras. Trots att CSR står inför utmaningar när det gäller att förverkliga de mänskliga rättigheterna ser jag i min studie goda resultat av CSR-arbete. Jag ser i min slutsats ingen anledning att förkasta CSR men uttrycker att det bör ses som ett komplement till nationell lagstiftning. Ett starkt civilt samhälle och ett ökat samarbete mellan parter anser jag också är en förutsättning för att tillgodose de mänskliga rättigheterna. / In this paper I have researched the role of Corporate Social Responsibility when implementing human rights in countries where multi-national organizations act. The papers basis and theoretical foundation is the United Nation declaration of human rights along with theories regarding Corporate Social Responsibility. A deepened theoretical section will be presented where the transnational responsibility gap is explained. This section will be followed by a discussion regarding the changing area of responsibility that has take place, where not only governments should be viewed as actors when realizing the human rights. I have used a qualitative research method combined with descriptive elements. The choice of method has impacted the study be me having an interpreting point of view upon the data that has been used. Throughout the research I have studied a variety of literature in order to create an overview of the discourse. Following the literature study, I have chosen parts that I have found the most relevant and fitting for my problem. I have used the companies Hennes & Mauritz, IKEA and Volvo to exemplify as well as strengthen my arguments. In addition to academic literature I have used the companies’ annual reports, sustainability reports and sources from the Internet.The paper discusses the role of CSR when realizing human rights. A variety of examples of CSR- projects will be presented and discussed. The examples are chosen from the previously presented organizations operations. Views of for what and for whom the companies feel responsibility for and what companies actually do in their CSR-projects will be presented. The presented companies have chosen to connect themselves to the UN Global Compact initiative, the paper will also touch upon this. There is criticism against CSR, one of them is questioning the motives of the companies. Although CSR stands before a challenge when realizing human rights I have found positive results from CSR-work. In my conclusion I have found no reason to discard CSR, however it should be viewed as an addition to national law. I believe that a strong society and an increased collaboration between actors is a requirement to achieve realization of human rights.