The current research examines the role of entitlement, or an illegitimate sense of deservingness, in the marketplace. We focus on the antecedents of entitlement and describe a market situation that leads to an elevated sense of entitlement among a certain consumer group. We demonstrate that a sense of entitlement has negative consequences that extend beyond the original circumstances in which it was triggered. Specifically, we argue that when certain customers are afforded preferential treatment, leading to an elevated sense of entitlement, this gives rise to an opportunistic behavior. We also explore the effect of entitlement has on different consumers depending on their prior relationship, if any, with the company or business in question. We show that when preferential treatment is afforded "non-loyal" customers of a company, those customers experience an elevated sense of entitlement and are more likely to behave opportunistically than the same company's "loyal" customers are
