Exploring The Role of Social Media in Relationship Marketing in Retail Banking: Opportunities & Challenges in South East Europe

This work presents the research exploring the role of Web 2.0 technologies and social media in relationship marketing (RM) in the retail banking sector and specifically their role in the banking industry of the South-East European (SEE) region. Following unresolved questions in the literature regarding the value of social in the retail banking sector and its aptitude to support relationships between banks and clients, this research explores the multifaceted reality of how social media is accommodated in bank-client relationships in the SEE retail banking context. The goal of this research is to arrive to theoretical implications for expanding the current knowledge in the RM domain and possible roles that social media play for its implementation in the era of Web 2.0 communications. The aim of this research is also to provide practical insights on the scope of Web 2.0-enabled RM strategies in retail banking. Research is conducted with an interpretivist qualitative approach and via multi-method design comprised to address the multifaceted reality of social media and RM in banking, addressing the perspectives of banks as well as consumers. Research incorporates web- based observation study illustrating the rates and progress of social media adoption among banks in the SEE region, qualitative case studies illustrating banking approaches to RM and social media adoption and focus groups portraying the perspectives of consumers regarding the phenomenon of social media in banking. Thesis offers theorisations that the adoption of social media surpasses the trend status and conveys an important marketing value for reaching the younger population of consumers. Although social media are not precedent for the establishment of relationships between banks and modern-day consumers, they provide the opportunity to instate pre-relationship rapport between clients and banks which could serve as basis for future relations and enticement to loyalty.