protected function initializeProductSuperAttributeLabel(array $attr)
    {

        // load product super attribute/store ID
        $storeId = $attr[MemberNames::STORE_ID];
        $productSuperAttributeId = $attr[MemberNames::PRODUCT_SUPER_ATTRIBUTE_ID];

        // query whether or not, the product super attribute label already exists
        if ($entity = $this->loadProductSuperAttributeLabel($productSuperAttributeId, $storeId)) {
            return $this->mergeEntity($entity, $attr);
        }

        // simply return the attributes
        return $attr;
    }