Retail Ecosystem Emerges or Can Be Built through B2B Relational Factors Encouraged by Legal Rules? An Empirical Analysis

Over the last decade, the retail sector had trouble due to the economic crisis and the growing complexity of the environment. In this context, the banking system becomes a relevant actor for accessing a critical resource such as credit. The objective of this work is to investigate the role of the legality rating, introduced by the Italian Law 62/2012 as an award-winning instrument for "virtuous" companies, in managing the relationships with bank. With this aim, this paper benefits of the systems theories and the literature on ecosystems. Primary data have been collected from 123 retailers and analysed using a qualitative approach based on the frequency distributions of the variables. Results show the main benefits provided by the legality rating that retailers claim they have had in the relationship with the banks. This paper offers an original contribution for the study of legality ratings by the business perspective and for the understanding of the retail ecosystems emersion.