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

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.