SDGs and Strategic Priorities of MNEs for Sustainability Transformation: Lessons from IKEA

The purpose of this book chapter is to examine how sustainable developmental goal (SDG) implementation for sustainability transformation can be driven by the business practice of a multinational enterprise (MNE). It concerns sustainability transformation that takes place in complex environments with the engagement of different types of stakeholders from various organizations and domains. The chapter focuses on inclusive stakeholder orientation to move from a firm-centric to a societal perspective grounded in an ethical, macro-oriented, and network philosophy. The transformation is embedded in the global transformation agenda, the UN 2030 agenda, with its 17 SDGs. In this chapter, the authors assess MNEs’ role in implementing the SDGs by conceptualizing sustainability transformation practice in a business context of IKEA grounded in circular economy and circular society thinking. Implementing the SDGs strengthens the “challenge-driven transformative change.” Based on the theoretical and conceptual framework, the authors have constructed a matrix and contextualized the case of IKEA. It results in a descriptive analysis of MNE SDG implementation for sustainability transformation. The chapter has contributed a general model for a sustainability transformation practice in a business context embedded in circular economy and circular society thinking, which can utilize for challenge-driven transformative change. The new model has been redesigned for its new purpose. The model is constructed based on a new theoretical and conceptual framework and from the context of IKEA as a MNE acting as a globally integrated enterprise with a circular and societal transformation focus.