When Relationship Marketing Goes Wrong: Opportunism and Consumer Well-Being in Consumer-Bank Relationships

Abstract

This article revisits debates surrounding the ethics of relationship marketing in the context of bank-consumer relationships in Egypt.The argument develops the conceptual lens of opportunism, observing that an insight into opportunistic behaviour can help to understand why, when implemented, relationship marketing may often play out in unintended (and often unethical) ways. The article describes an interpretive analysis of 25 interviews with Egyptian bank consumers. Two overlapping sets of opportunistic behaviours emerge as potentially unethical: offering differing levels of service to consumers according to their profitability and exploiting the knowledge asymmetry between the consumer and the bank through complex agreements. A third theme that cuts across these behaviours is the dominance of a performance-driven culture in banks, which means that sales targets and other performance measures are often prioritised by staff over consumer needs and well-being. In closing, the article explores possible mechanisms to counter or minimise opportunistic behaviours.

Unethical sales practices in retail banking

“…Consumers were aware of this fact and mentioned this in their posts by using "target" and "incentive" words in the deception clusters, referring to the sales targets and sales incentives of the salespeople. The sales staff confronts a dilemma between these targets and consumer well-being, and some consumers perceive that they are deceived when there is an over-focus on sales (Elsharnouby and Parsons, 2013;Friend et al, 2020).…”

“…Customer trust and relationship management are very relevant in banking services since the perceived risk is high (Guenzi and Georges, 2010). Ethics and customer relationship management accompany each other, and relationships in the banking sector are quite distinct since they should be based on a high level of trust and are mainly regulated by strict laws (Elsharnouby and Parsons, 2013). In the financial services sector, the ethical sales behavior of frontline employees positively influences customer satisfaction, trust and loyalty (Roman, 2003;Tolba et al, 2015).…”

“…Thus, retail banking sales situations are very risky in terms of unethical behaviors, and unethical behavior perceptions may change dramatically depending on the product category and sales situation. It is already accepted that not all marketers adopt ethical approaches in relationship management (Elsharnouby and Parsons, 2013). Ameer and Halinen (2019) have reviewed 164 articles published in 48 business journals and pointed out that studies on unethical behavior must move beyond the limited lens of the ethical decision-making process and must be interpreted in a larger domain that includes social relations and dynamic interactions with other parties.…”

Local consumer well‐being in a multicultural marketplace: From conflict to engagement

“…Other informants recounted additional examples of perceived vulnerability, such as giving priority in healthcare service appointment booking to those who are the same nationality of the receptionist and selling products at higher prices to locals in mall kiosks and small stores or providing higher hotel rates for locals booking a room than expatriates booking a room. Fundamentally, consumer categorization represents one of the key controversial issues in marketing literature and practice (Elsharnouby & Parsons, 2013; Kavali et al, 1999). The irony here is that the consumer acculturation literature has addressed consumer vulnerability or marginalization in situations where brands target the ethnicity of the majority and ignore minorities, who are usually immigrants (e.g., Kipnis et al, 2013).…”

Towards a service-led relationship in project-based firms

“…Grayson and Ambler (1999) showed that longer-term relationships have negative consequences such as rising expectations, a loss of objectivity and opportunism, which may negate the positive consequences of a relationship. The dark-side of relationship has been studied and explained in different ways, and some solutions have been explored to overcome these negative consequences (e.g., Anderson and Jap, 2005;Elsharnouby and Parsons, 2013;Fang et al, 2011;Villena et al, 2011). The negative consequences of relationship have also been investigated in construction and project contexts; for instance, Jin and Ling (2005) showed that an increasingly close relationship may lead to self-interest seeking actions and opportunistic behaviour.…”