Compatibility of Corporate Sustainability with a Cost Leadership Strategy

Abstract: BACKGROUND Exploring literature about corporate sustainability and cost leadership strategy and to study the collusion of the two concepts through the case of Ikea. AIM Researching whether firms can align corporate sustainability approach to doing business on the imperatives of a cost leadership strategy. The contribution aims to provide guidance on choosing appropriate sustainability activities within the context of cost leadership strategy. Furthermore, it should be noted that this paper sets out to analyze the compatibility between sustainability and cost leadership remaining/gaining competitiveness. METHODOLOGY The study regards Ikea’s implementation of sustainable business practices through a mixed method, via informal interview, bottom-employees survey and secondary data. FINDINGS Companies having a deep understanding of sustainability can achieve to conciliate their efforts toward sustainability with their cost leadership strategy. KEYWORDS Corporate sustainability, cost leadership strategy, triple bottom line, maturity phase, challenges, competitive advantage