Mini-Case Study Assignment: Case-IKEA

Identify and explain the issues IKEA faced when expanding into the United States. How did it address these challenges? What evidence is there today that it continues to incorporate these issues into its U.S. strategy?

Guidelines

Students must divide their assignment in 4 paragraphs as follow:

Paragraph I- Explain how the IKEA issues began and how California has affected its location strategy and product costs (give statistics to illustrate your ideas). Justify IKEAs reaction against Boston location as well. Your discussion ideas must be very well documented.

Paragraph II-What happened to IKEA once it entered U.S. market? Was easily the market demand estimated? How the poor market demand affected IKEAs inventory and prices? What was the strategy of IKEA to address its costs (give statistics to support your ideas)?

Paragraph III- What are the product design issued that IKEA faced? Explain your ideas by providing some specific examples and/or illustrations.

Paragraph IV- When was the case first written? And at that time how many stores IKEA had in the USA? How many stores does IKEA have today? Are those stores covering California and Massachusetts? What happens to its challenges? Speculate!