The impact of ethical leadership in supply chain management on customer loyalty in retail operations

Sustainability, provenance, local and ethical sourcing and circular supply chains are some of the many ethical practices becoming significant influencers in the consumer decision making process. This extends beyond the retailer throughout the supply chain which is forcing customer centric businesses to restructure their supply chains to meet changing consumer demands.

Implementation of such policies can have considerable impact on supply chains in terms of cost, supplier selection and outsourcing etc. The research aims to consider the main challenges to businesses in restructuring supply chains and the inherent advantages and disadvantages of doing so beyond meeting customer demand. In order to accurately quantify the relative impact of such initiatives, a suitably valuable and quantifiable performance metric needs to be applied. Customer loyalty is considered an important key to organizational success and profit. Firms with large groups of loyal customers have been shown to have large market shares, and market share, in turn, has been shown to be associated with higher rates of return on investment.

Invariably certain businesses and industries will benefit more from undertaking this initiative. The research will therefore, focus on the retail sector as an industry that has traditionally provided greater transparency and marketing focus on such ethical leadership practices. The outcome of this research will seek to identify a specific model or framework businesses can use to identify the relative impact of ethical leadership in supply chains on customer loyalty.

APPLICATIONS

Candidates must submit a brief literature review (500 words, not including the list of references in the word count) of their selected project, accompanied by a short CV (one page) and complete the registration form. An applicant may apply for more than one project, however each application must have a separate literature review.

An Honours Degree (minimum 2.2, but 2.1 or higher is desirable) in the relevant business/computing/engineering disciplines.Candidates from outside the EU are eligible to apply but may be expected to provide evidence of sources of additional funds to cover living expenses for the first month in Ireland.

If either English or Irish is not the applicant’s first language, evidence of English language proficiency is required for registration. Applicants must have attained a minimum of IELTS 6.5 or equivalent, due to the very high academic writing standard required for postgraduate qualifications through research.

Application Form / Terms of Conditions can be obtained on the website: https://www.itsligo.ie/oscar/

Please send your completed application form to Sean Walker - walker.sean@itsligo.ie

The closing date for receipt of applications is 5pm, (GMT) 22nd of August 2022.