How does national culture travel through a global brand? Ask pre-service teachers: Cultural diffusion and IKEA's role in Swedish cultural diffusion.

This study examined social studies pre-service teachers' perceptions of cultural diffusion, the role of an IKEA store in Türkiye in disseminating Swedish national culture and how this role could be further developed, as well as how they would conceptualize the role of their own hypothetical brand in the context of cultural diffusion. The study group consisted of 12 social studies pre-service teachers enrolled in a social studies teacher education program at a public university in Türkiye during the 2025-2026 academic year. The study employed a qualitative case study design, and data were collected using the "Cultural Diffusion Phenomenon Interview Form" and the "IKEA Store Visit Interview Form." The data were analyzed using descriptive and content analysis. The findings indicated that the social studies pre-service teachers predominantly perceived cultural diffusion through the lens of "Cultural Diffusion as a State of Encounter and Transmission." They interpreted the role of the IKEA store in disseminating Swedish national culture primarily through the categories of "Space to Grow," "Creativity," and "Different With a Meaning," and grounded their interpretations of how this role could be further developed in the same categories. Moreover, the findings showed that, when conceptualizing the role of their own hypothetical brand in the context of cultural diffusion, the pre-service teachers most prominently emphasized the cultural indicator of "Symbols," particularly the subdimension of "Symbols as the Design of the Brand Sales Space."