Brand Culture In China Case Study

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INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this paper is to analyse, evaluate, understand and assess the challenges in the integration of cultures, cultural diversity, brand culture, consumer psychology as well as consumer behaviour when Swedish multinational corporation IKEA started their operations in China (Focus: Shanghai) by applying the Hofstede's theoretical framework which would help identify national culture features and comparing it with Trompenaar's theoretical framework. The goal of this study is to determine whether IKEA's brand culture is suitable in Shanghai as well as how it performs through the understanding of the cultural backgrounds of the Chinese society.

ORGANISATIONAL AND NATIONAL CULTURE
An organisation basically means an individual …show more content…

Culture directs the organisation to goal attainment. Newly appointed employees must be taught what is regarded as the correct way of behaving. Culture has a number of elements that are implicit and explicit as stated by (Groeschl & Doherty, 2000). According to (Schein, 1985), there are three levels of culture, namely; artefacts, values and assumptions.

(Newman & Nollen, 1996) describes national culture as a central organising principle of employee's understanding of work, approaches to it as well as ways they expect to be treated. There are three vital cultural characteristics that influence commercial activities, i.e. Tolerance for uncertainty, Competitiveness and Individualism (Steensma, Marino, Weaver, & Dickson, …show more content…

The researcher has also found that IKEA is not doing as well as they hoped as their price is considered high to the Chinese people. This confuses people as it contradicts with IKEA's brand culture of improving people lives by providing quality products at lower prices.

Overall, however, they are performing fairly well and have achieved some success, that is to say, there is continual growth, profit and expansion of stores in China. IKEA should dispel any misunderstandings, especially about its brand's culture and help their employees avoid or tackle any cultural shocks that could hinder its operations due to its Swedish organisational culture and roots.

Furthermore, it is best for IKEA to improve its development speed in order to make the supply chain and logistics efficient enough to reduce prices, and at the same time, dispel any misunderstandings about its brand's culture. Finally, the continual improvement of the organisation as a whole as well as quality of its products is paramount for IKEA to achieve a better position in the Chinese and Shanghai

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