Bruna Isabela Moreira Lanna
IB – Afternoon
1. By the early 1970s IKEA had established itself as the largest furniture retailer
in Sweden. What was the source of its competitive advantage at that time?
The source of its competitive advantage was on the low price and quality of service of
its products. So IKEA could get most part of the market among other retailer. It was
advantages because the markets were fragmented and served by high-cost retailers
locate in expensive downtowns store that was selling expensive furniture that was not
always immediately available for delivery.
2. Why do you think IKEA’s expansion into Europe went so well? Why did the
company subsequently stumble in North America? What lessons did IKEA
learn from this experience? How is the company now applying these lessons?
I think that IKEA’s expansion went so well into Europe because it was in the same
geographic area and was not so difficult know about the market over there. Further,
they might already have a notion about the market there. Unlike, they stumble in
North America that was in other continent with other culture such different style of
measures on they furniture, so they had to change all the production in order to fit in
the North America style. They could learn that they have to be careful when they want
