In IKEA Case. Partner selection, alliance design, and post-formation alliance management are essential to a successful alliance. Many alliances fail due to problems in post-formation management. IKEA is the world's largest furniture retailer. It has many non-equity alliances with suppliers and manufacturers around the world. IKEA also makes strategic use of non-equity alliances and stakeholder partnerships to participate in finding solutions to social and environmental challenges. As a Strategy Consultant, you want to find more information and data about IKEA. Search the following sources of data; The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Business Week, Fortune, The New York Times, theepochtimes.com, Inc.com, Forbes.com, PRNewswire.com, Bloomberg.com, Reuters.com, Fastcompany.com for more data (qualitative and quantitative) about IKEA's active partnerships (strategic alliances) and acquisitions. Search what IKEA has done in the past ten years. Your data collection will provide you insights to answer the following questions: 2- What non-equity alliances have shown success? 3- How do these partnerships relate to maintaining IKEA's competitive advantage as the world's largest furniture retailer? As you have learned about CSR- Corporate Social Responsibility and firm value creation earlier in the course, answer the following questions: 4- Define what constitutes success for IKEA and success for the nonprofit partner. 5- What resources and capabilities does each party bring to the alliance? Refer to Exhibit 9.4- How to Make Alliances Work to consider which of these governance considerations would be most relevant to this particular type of non-equity alliance. 6- With M&A in mind, find out if IKEA has acquired other companies in the past ten years? Explain why IKEA has decided to acquire other companies. Does the acquisition bring a Competitive Advantage to IKEA? Explain how