Ethical Issue - Ikea (M'Sia)

Ethical or International Issue on Ikea

Ikea is one of the biggest product retailers from Sweden. Ikea penetrate to a lot of countries, one of the good example is in Malaysia. The question here is how they penetrate into the other cultures, as we know that Ikea is famous for their product that comes from Swedish culture. So, as a big company, they need to think of how to respect and create the opportunities to sell their product with the other cultures or countries.

Ikea’s furniture is a well known for its modern and practical design. Much of Ikea's furniture is designed to be assembled by the consumer rather than being sold pre-assembled. Ikea claims that this permits them to reduce costs and use of packaging by not shipping air; the volume of a bookcase, for example, is considerably less if it is shipped unassembled rather than assembled. This is also a practical point for many of the chain's European customers, where public transport is commonly used, which is the flat-pack distribution methods allow for easier transport via public transport from the store to a customer's home for assembly. (IKEA 2007)

Ikea contend that it has been a pioneering force in sustainable approaches to mass consumer culture. The company applies an integrated approach to manufacturing and design. In response to the explosion of human population and material expectations in the 20th and 21st century, Ikea implements economies of scale, capturing material streams and creating manufacturing processes that hold costs and resource use down, such as the wide use of particle board. The planned result is flexible, adaptable home furnishings - scalable both to smaller homes and dwelling as well as large houses.

One of the reasons why the consumer loves Ikea’s product is because of the prices are low. Ikea has been working on ways of creating low prices – purchasing as inexpensively as possible, flat-packing furniture for customers to put together themselves. But Ikea ambition...