The Role of Private Label in Retail Ecosystem

This conceptual study aims to understand the role of private label in the modern retail, using the theoretical framework of ecosystem in Service-Dominant Logic (S-D Logic) perspective. The hypothesis of the work is that the literature about service ecosystem could be useful to analyze the relationships and interactions between manufacturer companies, copackers, retail companies, logistics, and customers; in this sense, it is possible to explain how ‟relationships in the retail ecosystem are affected by specific institutions that define actor’s behaviour”. The aim is to understand if the private label in modern retail could be considered as institution of the retail ecosystem, or rather, a shared language and code that affects production, retailers, customers and other actors who should contribute to value co-creation. The main managerial implications of the paper concern the marketing and management competences and knowledge necessary for retailers to manage an institution of increasing importance for the entire retail ecosystem, which generates economic, social and environmental value.