Corporate Responsibility and Hypercompetition. The IKEA Case

Abstract

The rapid changes caused by growing complexity, accelerating technological innovation and globalisation, have driven companies to play a precise economicsocial role. Hypercompetition implies a substantial change in a company’s strategic objectives: every advantage gained over the rivals is rapidly imitated and surpassed. Hypercompetition needs from the company the ability to control simultaneously: costs and quality; timing and know-how; strengths and weaknesses; financial resources. Following the expansion of its target market which has become global, a company often adopts a network structure. The network requires the activation of relations with local interlocutors and presupposes a coordinated system of values inside the organisation.