David T. Wilson is the Alvin H. Clemens Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at the Pennsylvania State University and the Managing Director of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets. Professor Wilson was the founding editor of the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing. His main research interest is in industrial marketing. Professor Wilson's publications are primarily in the area of seller-buyer relationship in business market and also other business market issues like organizations' market orientation, electronic data interchange and marketing with computer network.

Wilson, David T., "An Integrated Model of Buyer-Seller Relationships," Journal-of-the-Academy-of-Marketing-Science, Vol.23, No.4 (1995) pp.335-345.

This article integrates buyer-seller relationship constructs most often studied in empirical relationship research into a conceptual framework on relationship development process. Professor Wilson argued that although many studies on the factors influencing success/failure of buyer-seller relationship have appeared, there was no integrated framework to illustrate how the relationship be developed. Especially, since those relationship studies were cross-sectional in design, influence of the different stages of relationship development process had not been considered. Thus, Professor Wilson proposed a five-stage relationship development framework to integrate the factors influencing success/failure of buyer-seller relationship.

Professor Wilson first set up a boundary for his five-stage framework. He argued that not all suppliers are appropriate partners for cooperative relationship with which his integrated framework is concerned. The framework applies only to the suppliers that are able to add value to the buyers' product and have relatively low operating risk as partners.

By reviewing available literature studying factors determining success/failure of relationship, Professor Wilson selected twelve constructs that have both theoretical and empirical support as focal variables in his framework. These relationship variables are: a) commitment, b) trust, c) cooperation, d) mutual goals, e) interdependence and power, f) performance satisfaction, g) structural bonds, h) comparison level of the alternatives, i) adaptation, j) nonretrievable investments, k) shared technology, and l) social bonds.

The backbone of Professor Wilson's framework is a process model with five stages of relationship development. In each stage, not all of the twelve constructs play significant role in determining the success/failure of the relationship. To the contrary, the constructs have both an active time phase, where they are very influential to the relationship and a latent phase where they are still important but not under active consideration in relationship interaction. In other words, constructs in a particular development stage are in ether "active" or "latent" status and this status will switch as the relationship progresses. The five stages characterizing the buyer-seller relationship development process are: 1) partner selection, 2) defining purpose, 3) setting relationship boundaries, 4) creating relationship value, 5) relationship maintenance. Professor Wilson's elaboration of when the constructs become active or latent in these five stages is summarized in the attached figure.

This article is a reflection of Professor Wilson's knowledge in buyer-seller relationship in business market, accumulated from his efforts in this area for past two decades. Several industrial marketing researchers did highly appraise this five-stage framework and have published its commentaries.

Wilson, David T., "Industrial Buyers Decision-Making Styles," Journal of Marketing Research. (Nov 1971) vol8 no4

Busch, Paul and Wilson, David T., "An Experimental Analysis of a Salesman's Expert and Referent Bases of Social Power in the Buyer-Seller Dyad," Journal of Marketing Research. (Feb 1976) v13n1, p3-11

Mathews, H Lee; Wilson, David T and Backhaus, Klaus, "Selling to the computer assisted buyer," Industrial-Marketing-Management. (1977) v6n4, 307-315

Monoky, John F Jr.; Mathews, H Lee and Wilson, David T, "Marketing Managers Should Design Communications Mix Based on Customer's Buyclass," Marketing-News. (Jun 26, 1981) v14n26(Section 2), p. 9

Tucker, Lewis R Jr.; Dolich, Ira J and Wilson, David T, "Profiling Environmentally Responsible Consumer-Citizens," Journal-of-the-Academy-of-Marketing-Science. (Fall 1981) v9n4, pp. 454-477

Wilson, David T, "Developing Organizational Buying Theory: A Small Sample Perspective," Journal-of-Business-Research. (Apr 1985) v13n2, pp. 177-185

Wilson, David T and Lichtenthal, J David, "Testing for Deterministic Salesperson Attributes in Mature Markets," Journal-of-Personal-Selling-and-Sales-Management. (May 1985) v5n1, pp. 23-30

Wilson, David T and Mummalaneni, Venkatapparao, "Bonding and Commitment in Buyer-Seller Relationships: A Preliminary Conceptualisation," Industrial -Marketing-and-Purchasing. (1986) v1n3, pp. 44-58

Wilson, David T and Ghingold, Morry, "Linking R&D to Market Needs," Industrial-Marketing-Management. (Aug 1987) v16n3, pp. 207-214

Turnbull, Peter W and Wilson, David T, "Developing and Protecting Profitable Customer Relationships," Industrial-Marketing-Management. (Aug 1989) v18n3, pp. 233-238

Wilson,Elizabeth J; Lilien, Gary L and Wilson, David T, "Developing and Testing a Contingency Paradigm of Group Choice in Organizational Buying," Journal-of-Marketing-Research. (Nov 1991) v28n4, pp. 452-466

Lichtenthal, J David and Wilson, David T, "Becoming Market Oriented," Journal-of-Business-Research. (May 1992) v24n3, pp. 191-207

Han, Sang Lin; Wilson, David T and Dant, Shirish P, "Buyer-supplier relationships today," Industrial-Marketing-Management. Nov 1993; v22n4, pp. 331-338

Soni, Praveen K; Lilien, Gary L and Wilson, David T, "Industrial innovation and firm performance: A re-conceptualization and exploratory structural equation analysis," International-Journal-of-Research-in-Marketing. (Dec 1993) v10n4, pp. 365-380

Corey, Robert J and Wilson, David T, "Using motivation as a basis for understanding and improving direct marketing relationships," Journal-of-Direct-Marketing. (Autumn 1994) v8n4, pp. 28-39

Vlosky, Richard P; Smith, Paul M and Wilson, David T, "Electronic data interchange implementation strategies: A case study," Journal-of-Business-and-Industrial-Marketing. (1994) v9n4, pp. 5-18

Pelham, Alfred M and Wilson, David T, "A longitudinal study of the impact of market structure, firm structure, strategy, and market orientation culture on dimensions of small-firm performance," Journal-of-the-Academy-of-Marketing-Science. (Winter 1996) v24n1, pp. 27-43

Vlosky, Richard P and Wilson, David T, "Effects of UPC barcoding on the relationships between homecenter buyers and wood products suppliers," Forest-Products-Journal. (Apr 1996) v46n4, pp. 32-40

Lichtenthal, J David; Wilson, David T and Long, Mary M, "Scientific contributions to the field from the Journal of Business-to-Business Marketing," Journal-of-Business-Research. (Mar 1997) v38n3, pp. 211-233