Dissertation Research Proposal
| Programme | MBA ( Logistics & Supply Chain Management) |
| Research Question | How does the operational efficiency of reverse logistics influence customer retention in Malta’s online grocery market? |
Aims of Dissertation (500 Words)
Describe the topic(s) or issue(s) you wish to investigate for your dissertation.
The online grocery market of Malta uses the third party delivery services extensively. Although investments in speed and reliability have been applied to forward logistics, the reversal flow of products, such as the refund, the replacement, and the pickups of goods that are unacceptable, is not very noticeable to customers. Recent studies indicate that the effectiveness of reverse logistics will determine customer confidence and purchase behaviour; a 2024 study study revealed that a high level of reverse logistics will make customers trust the business performing it greatly and that it will positively influence buying decisions (Chaudhary et al., 2024). The 2025 SERVQUAL also observed that customer satisfaction mostly relates to quality of replacements, clarity of return policy and customer service (Abdul Aziz et al., 2025).
Online grocery delivery ups the complexity of reverse logistics since products are perishable, imports lead times are long, and Malta is a small nation, making it difficult to conduct an efficient pickup process. The processes of returning can include reprocessing or remanufacturing products or recovering them (Wang and Liao, 2023). According to industry reports, reverse logistics is a last frontier, where proper network design is required to extract as much value as it can out of returned products (Autry, 2024). In the absence of effective reverse logistics, the level of customer dissatisfaction can increase despite the existence of strong forward logistics; a study in Vietnam reveals that the time that the customer takes in the process of returns, the policy of the company or organization regarding returns, the cost of the returns, customer services and quality of products after returning are all significantly related to customer satisfaction (Thu et al., 2024).
In an island market such as Malta, bad experience in terms of returns would undermine trust within a short period of time and lead to less retention of customers. The research is timely because the number of people who buy groceries online is increasing, but there is limited information regarding the effect of operational efficiency of the reverse logistics on loyalty.
Clearly indicate what your aims, research question and objectives are.
Research question: How does the operational efficiency of reverse logistics influence customer retention in Malta’s online grocery market?
Aim
To measure the effectiveness of the refund, replacement and reimbursing procedures at the online grocery delivery in Malta and determine how it influences retention of the customers.
Objectives
- Evaluate the perception of customers with regards to refunding, replacement and returns in the online grocery industry in Malta.
- Establish the correlation between the efficiency of these processes and customer retention.
- Formulate a solution to enhance the reverse logistics, basing on the customer feedbacks and best practices in the industry.
This study has implications to practice and theory. To practitioners, the knowledge of the refund and replacement processes may assist the online grocer to develop faster and more transparent reverse processes that allow them to retain their customers and minimize wastage. To the scholars, the research will be a continuation of the existing research in reverse logistics since it will emphasize the distinctive limitations of island economies, including dependency in imports and inadequate transport networks, which are not widely covered in the literature.
Literature Review 500 WORDS
| NO. | PAPER REFERENCE | DISCUSSION |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | (Chaudhary et al., 2024) | Descriptive correlational research on Nepalese e commerce shoppers. Effective reverse logistics benefits the development of trust and intention to purchase and a clear policy on returns is a competitive edge. Simple and clear policies are important as demonstrated by structural equation modelling. This emphasises the trust building importance of reverse logistics and justifies the investigation of how reverse processes such as refund, replacement and returns affects retention. It however only deals with non-perishable goods and a different cultural background hence cannot be generalised to perishable groceries and small island markets. |
| 2 | (Abdul Aziz et al., 2025) | SERVQUAL survey of Malaysian consumers recalling products. The satisfaction depends on quality of replacements, clarity of their return policy and quality of service provided; less on refund timelines. These dimensions can inform the quality of replacement, service quality and policy clearness in online grocery returns. The authors mention that quality substitutions and transparent policies indicate the knowledge of retailers and increase satisfaction. Nevertheless, generalizability to perishable groceries and Malta may be restricted by the concentration on non-perishable goods in Malaysia. |
| 3 | (Wang and Liao, 2023) | Constructs a fuzzy TOPSIS and multi segment goal programming model to choose sustainable reverse logistics providers in the food industry, whereby returns can include reprocessing and remanufacturing. As the model combines economic, environmental and regulatory forces, it shows the significance of sustainability in the decisions that are made concerning the reverse logistics. The analysis identifies challenges of complexity and sustainability of food supply chains and demands a selection of the provider to be careful. It however, focuses on strategic choices instead of customer experiences, gives no empirical analysis of customers and is silent on last mile issues. |
| 4 | (Autry, 2024) | Practitioner report describes reverse logistics as a final frontier, and states that reverse logistics deal with backward flows to maximise residual value. It speaks of network design, regional facilities and third parties, with higher returns on the value recovery. The report claims that the infrastructure of reverse logistics can be enhanced through cooperation between supply chain and real estate specialists. However, the report cannot be regarded as peer reviewed, has no empirical data, and does not take into account customer perceptions, thus its generalizability to academic studies is restricted. |
| 5 | (Huong et al., 2024) | The OLS study of Vietnamese e commerce platforms that revealed that processing time, return policy, cost, service and product quality, have significant correlation with customer satisfaction. It also records a large level of dissatisfaction over low quality of products, shipping and care. The authors observe that over 80 percent of platforms have adopted return and refund policies as a way of enhancing satisfaction. The research makes an empirical relationship between various reverse logistics variables and satisfaction and emphasises the importance of clear policies and quality of services. It however looks at general e commerce rather than groceries and cultural differences may restrict to Malta. |
Research Methodology (300-500 WORDS)
(A) Research Design
The proposed research has a descriptive design. It attempts to outline the processes of refund, replacement and return in the Maltese online grocery industry and how the perceived efficiency of these operations affects retention of customers. Because the reverse logistics has not been fully examined in regards to logistics in the grocery delivery industry, a cross sectional survey will be suitable in the case where the customer experiences will be captured at a single point in time. The study will investigate correlation of relationships instead of causality and correlational analysis will be appropriate according to a descriptive design.
(B) Research Approach
This study is based on a positivist research philosophy as it aims at the objective measurement of perceptions of customers. It will be a quantitative survey that is conducted through a structured question. Since the emphasis is put on the measurement of the connections between reverse logistics effectiveness and retention, the deductive approach should be utilized. The research shall gather and analyse the numerical data by using online questionnaire and statistical methods. This option makes it possible to replicate and extract the case in the Maltese online grocery.
(C) Research Instrument
A self administered online questionnaire will be used to gather the data. The tool will consist of Likert scale questions that may gauge the customer satisfaction on the refund speed, the quality of the replacement, the ease of booking the returns, the clarity of the refund policy and customer services, based on SERVQUAL dimensions and past studies on reverse logistics (Abdul Aziz et al., 2025). Items that will be determined to measure the retention intention will also be included, such as the probability of reordering and referring the service to others. The survey will undergo pre testing on a few to make certain there is ease and credibility to distribute it via online grocery stores and social media.
(D) Sampling Design (Sampling frame, Sample size, Sampling Method)
The sampling frame will include adults who live in Malta and have purchased online grocery delivery services within the last year. Since there is no sampling list, the nonprobability convenience sampling will be used. The research will seek to obtain the feedback of a minimum of 100 customers to give adequate variability to be subjected to statistical analysis. Recruiting the participants will be conducted through online shopping blogs, social media pages and mailing list of customers. The involvement will be voluntary and anonymous.
(E) Data Analysis Techniques
The responses will be exported to Microsoft Excel where they will be cleaned and analyzed. The summarisation of demographic data and the perceptions of reverse logistics efficiency will be summarised using descriptive statistics. Cronbach alpha will be used to determine the reliability of multi item scales. The relationships between variables of reverse logistics (e.g., the speed of refund, the quality of replacement, the convenience of returning) and customer retention intention will be analyzed using correlation analysis. Appropriate multiple regression will be conducted to determine the factors that exert the greatest impact on retention with regard to the reverse logistics as well as the level of significance. Findings will be addressed to come up with realistic suggestions to health online grocers.
Reference List
Abdul Aziz, N.A., Johar, M.A., Selamat, A.S. and Doulatabadi, M., & Yusof, A. (2025) ‘The impact of reverse logistics service quality on customer satisfaction: a SERVQUAL-based analysis’, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS). [Online] DOI: 10.47772/IJRISS.2025.92800016 (Accessed: 12 February 2026).
Autry, C.W. (2024) Reverse Logistics Strategies for the Post-pandemic Supply Chain: Spaces and Places to Recapture Value. NAIOP Research Foundation. [Online] Available at: https://www.naiop.org/globalassets/research-and-publications/report/reverse-logistics-strategies-for-the-post-pandemic-supply-chain/naiop-2024-reverse-logistics-strategies-report.pdf (Accessed: 12 February 2026).
Chaudhary, M.K., Chaudhary, R.K., Ghimire, D.M., Bhattarai, D.R. and Adhikari, M. (2024) ‘Building trust through reverse logistics for shaping decision in e-commerce platforms’, Journal of Logistics, Informatics and Service Science, 11 (12), pp. 354–372. [Online] DOI: 10.33168/JLISS.2024.1217 (Accessed: 12 February 2026).
Thu, H.T.T., Nguyen, K.H., Vu, M.H. and Cong, P.T. (2024) ‘Impact of reverse logistics on customer satisfaction: a research on e-commerce platforms in Vietnam’, Journal of Infrastructure, Policy and Development, 8 (5), p. 4577. [Online] DOI: 10.24294/jipd.v8i5.4577 (Accessed: 12 February 2026).
Wang, Y.-L. and Liao, C.-N. (2023) ‘Assessment of sustainable reverse logistic provider using the fuzzy TOPSIS and MSGP framework in food industry’, Sustainability, 15 (5), p. 4305. [Online] DOI: 10.3390/su15054305 (Accessed: 12 February 2026).
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