Values-based service for sustainable business : Lessons from IKEA

Towards the end of each year, one thing you will most likely find in your letter-box, apart from the credit card bills for all that Christmas shopping, is the IKEA catalogue. With 2 branches in Singapore, this Swedish retailer of furniture and household goods with hard-to-pronounced names, has a reputation for low prices and innovative designs. You probably have one or two IKEA items in your home; I know I have more than a couple.

How is IKEA able to offer its wide range of functional furniture at such affordable prices? This book, Values-based service for sustainable business : lessons from IKEA, looks at how the values-based business model of IKEA has helped it sustain its profitable while still fulfilling its corporate social and environmental responsibility. Other values-based service companies, like Starbucks Coffee Company, Swedish clothing retailer H&M (soon to set up shop here in Singapore) and Body Shop are analysed for comparison.

Title: Values-based service for sustainable business : lessons from IKEA
Authors: Bo Edvardsson and Bo Enquist.
Publication info: London ; New York : Routledge, 2009.
Call Number: HD9980.5.E28 2009
Availability: Click here.

The authors have also published an article on the same topic in Managing Service Quality, Jul 2007, Vol. 17 Issue 4, p385-403. Access the article in Emerald database here.