Ford started his academic career at the University of Bath as lecturer, and promoted to senior lecturer, reader and in 1989 Professor of Marketing. In 2008 he retired as Emeritus Professor, and became Affiliate Professor at
KEDGE Business School in Marseille, France.[4] In 1976 he was co-founder of the
Industrial Marketing and Purchasing Group (IMP group).[5]
Ford's research interests are in the field of "relationships between companies develop and how they can be managed effectively. It also involves issues of technological development within and between companies. I am currently working as part of the team on the "Newmark" project. This study is looking at ways in which complex networks of companies operate and how companies behave within them."[6]
Selected publications
IMP Group & David Ford (ed). Understanding business markets: Interaction, relationships and networks. London: Academic Press, 1990.
Ford, David. "The development of buyer-seller relationships in industrial markets." European journal of marketing 14.5/6 (1980): 339–353.
Turnbull, Peter, David Ford, and Malcolm Cunningham. "Interaction, relationships and networks in business markets: an evolving perspective." Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing 11.3/4 (1996): 44–62.
^Tomkins, Cyril. "Interdependencies, trust and information in relationships, alliances and networks." Accounting, Organizations and Society 26.2 (2001): 161-191.