IKEA: Global sourcing and the sustainable leather initiative

Yan Jiang, Fu Jia*, Yu Gong

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

The leather industry has traditionally been characterized by global operations across both developed and developing countries. Due to the long distance and contextual differences, there are numerous sustainability issues occurring along the global leather supply chain. Addressing these issues is both a responsibility and a challenge for multinational companies, especially in their global sourcing (GS) activities. This teaching case provides an example of implementing the sustainable leather initiative in the global sourcing process at IKEA. The case demonstrates IKEA's sustainable leather initiative supported by its tailored GS strategy and GS structure and provides a benchmark of Sustainable GS for multinational companies and allows for a thorough discussion of how to implement a sustainability initiative while conducting GS. The case can be used to teach graduate/postgraduate in agricultural business, MBA and executive students on sustainable supply chain management and corporate social responsibility.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)627-639
Number of pages13
JournalInternational Food and Agribusiness Management Review
Volume21
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 13 Jun 2018

Bibliographical note

© 2018 Jiang et al.

Keywords

  • Global sourcing strategy
  • Global sourcing structure
  • Supply chain
  • Sustainable leather initiative
  • Teaching case

Cite this