The dark side of commercial friendships

Commercial friendships, are different from the arms-length relationship that are often seen as accompanying discrete market transactions between self-interested actors who does not focus on the social aspects that define friendship ties. However, it might be argued that a commercial friendship is not a friendship because true friends have expectation that true friendships are altruistic and devoid of alternative agendas that can yield benefits beyond the relationship, such as profits or status. By contrast, commercial relations are, by definition, at least partly driven by concerns that are self-interested in nature. This study addresses consumer relations by investigating how commercial friendships are tied to social norms of altruism and self-interested behaviour. The concept of social norms is chosen because they govern social relations and because punishments and sanctions arise when social norms are violated. Consequently, if there is a lack of knowledge about the social norms that govern customer relations, marketers might unintentionally violate the social norms and face a variety of punishments and sanctions from their customers.