• KIPS Transactions on Computer and Communication Systems
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.175-184
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• 2022

Blockchain is being studied in various fields such as logistics, fintech, medical care, and the public sector. In the public information software project, some deliverables are omitted because the developed deliverables and the deliverables requested by the project management methodology do not match, and an additional process is required for payment. In this paper, we propose the deliverables management system for public information software project which is configured a distributed environment using the Ethereum blockchain and which has an automatic payment system only when all deliverables are approved. This system can keep the service available in case of system failure, provide transparency and traceability of deliverables management, and can reduce conflicts between the ordering company and the contractor through automatic payment. In this system, the information of deliverables is stored in the blockchain, and the deliverables that their file name is the hash value calculated by using the version information and the hash value of the previous version deliverable, are stored in the SFTP server. Experimental results show that the hash value of the deliverables registered by the contractor is correct, the file name of the deliverables stored in the SFTP server is the same as the hash value registered in the Ethereum blockchain, and the payment is made automatically to the Ethereum address of the contractor when all deliverables are approved.

• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.133-143
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• 2003

Purpose : Amont the various issues concerning bio-ethics, the concern on euthanasia has increased along with the development of medical technology. Thus, the general public tends to have more liberal opinion. They have detail research data and real practices in US, Europe and Australia, but we lack such studies in our country. This study was undertaken to address the need of studies on the recognition of euthanasia among the public because the existing studies have been focused on the medical staff. Methods : Survey 413 people the age of 17 or more, from May to July 2000. Testify the data on the variation of demography and the recognition of euthanasia by using SAS 6.12, the statistic program. Results : 304 people (73.6%) think that euthanasia should be legislated, 156 people (37.8%) permit euthanasia to the rage of voluntary one, and 234 people (56.6%) permit passive euthanasia. When the subject of voluntary euthanasia was himself, more people whose age is 35 or more (P=0.001) responded that they will undertake euthanasia. And, on issues related to the passive euthanasia, one's educational background (P=0.046) and economic power (P=0.040) arrangement showed significant differences. When the subject of voluntary euthanasia is other people, more people whose age is 35 or more than 35 (P=0.001), whose sex is male (P=0.001), and married people (P=0.002) were for allowing the matter. For the subject of passive euthanasia, survey participant's occupation (P=0.016) created meaningful difference. More people whose age is 35 or more than 35 responded that they want voluntary euthanasia for themselves (P=0.001), and in the case when euthanasia is legislated, marital status (P=0.002) also shows meaningful difference. Passive euthanasia is permitted by the more people whose age is less than 35 for respondents other people (P=0.001), marital status show meaningful difference in case for respondent himself. In the case of legal euthanasia is more people whose age is 35 or more than 35 (P=0.001), sex is male (P=0.004) and more married people (P=0.001) responded that they want voluntary euthanasia for other people. And, age (P=0.002), sex (P=0.001), education (P=0.025) and economic power (P=0.001) show meaningful difference for case the subject of passive euthanasia. Conclusion : Most of general public responded that the legislation on euthanasia is required; and, age, education and economic power seem to have an influence on their decisions on euthanasia. Not only such a study of demographic and sociological correlation; but, various basic data on the legislation of euthanasia are needed.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.156-165
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• 2002

Background: A tracheal stenosis is caused by mucosal ischemic injury related to a high cuff pressure ($P_{cuff}$) of the endotracheal tube. In contrast, aspiration of the upper airway secretion and impaired gas exchange due to cuff leakage is related to a low $P_{cuff}$. To prevent these complications, the $P_{cuff}$ should be kept appropriately because the appropriate $P_{cuff}$ appears to change according to the patient's daily respiratory mechanics. However, the constant cuff volume($V_{cuff}$) has frequently been instilled to the cuff balloon on a daily basis to maintain the optimal $P_{cuff}$ instead of monitoring the $P_{cuff}$ directly at the patients' bedside. To address the necessity of continuous $P_{cuff}$ monitoring, the change in the $P_{cuff}$ was evaluated at various $V_{cuff}$ levels on a daily basis in patients with long-term mechanical ventilation. The utility of mercury column sphygmomanometer for the continuous monitoring $P_{cuff}$ was also investigated. Method: The change in $P_{cuff}$ according to the increase in $V_{cuff}$ was observed in 17 patients with prolonged endotracheal intubation for mechanical ventilation for 2 week or more. This maneuver measured the change in $P_{cuff}$ daily during the mechanical ventilation days. In addition, the $P_{cuff}$ measured by mercury column sphygmomanometer was compared with the $P_{cuff}$ measured by an automatic cuff pressure manager. Results : There were no statistically significant changes of $P_{cuff}$ during more than 14 days of intubation for mechanical ventilation. However the $V_{cuff}$ required to maintain the appropriate $P_{cuff}$ varied from 1.9 cc to 9.6 cc. In addition, the intra-individual variation of the $P_{cuff}$ was observed from 10 $cmH_2O$ to 46 $cmH_2O$ at constant 3 cc $V_{cuff}$. The $P_{cuff}$ measured by the bedside mercury column sphygmomanometer is well coincident with that measured by the automatic cuff pressure manager. Conclusion: Continuous monitoring and management of the $P_{cuff}$ to maintain the appropriate $P_{cuff}$ level in order to prevent cuff related problems during long-term mechanical ventilation is recommended. For this purpose, mercury column sphygmomanometer may replace the specific cuff pressure monitoring equipment.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.1-17
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• 2023

With the recent rapid development of ICT(Information and Communication Technology) and the popularization of digital devices, the size of the online market continues to grow. As a result, we live in a flood of information. Thus, customers are facing information overload problems that require a lot of time and money to select products. Therefore, a personalized recommender system has become an essential methodology to address such issues. Collaborative Filtering(CF) is the most widely used recommender system. Traditional recommender systems mainly utilize quantitative data such as rating values, resulting in poor recommendation accuracy. Quantitative data cannot fully reflect the user's preference. To solve such a problem, studies that reflect qualitative data, such as review contents, are being actively conducted these days. To quantify user review contents, text mining was used in this study. The general CF consists of the following three steps: user-item matrix generation, Top-N neighborhood group search, and Top-K recommendation list generation. In this study, we propose a recommendation algorithm that applies an extended similarity measure, which utilize quantified review contents in addition to user rating values. After calculating review similarity by applying TF-IDF, Word2Vec, and Doc2Vec techniques to review content, extended similarity is created by combining user rating similarity and quantified review contents. To verify this, we used user ratings and review data from the e-commerce site Amazon's "Health and Personal Care". The proposed recommendation model using extended similarity measure showed superior performance to the traditional recommendation model using only user rating value-based similarity measure. In addition, among the various text mining techniques, the similarity obtained using the TF-IDF technique showed the best performance when used in the neighbor group search and recommendation list generation step.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.61-70
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• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) of residential home dwelling elderly and home for the aged dwelling elderly. In attempt to address medical professional caring the elderly, this comparative study examines the factors associated with dependence in the ADL and IADL in two samples of elderly people living in two different environments. Methods: The instrument of ADL and IADL widely used Katz ADL and IADL. Katz ADL and IADL was not a perfect fit for Korean. In concern with cultural factors Won developed K(Korean)-ADL and K-IADL scale reflecting Korean's own language expression and cultural factors in year of 2002. The assessment tool of this study was K-ADL and K-IADL. Differences of ADL and IADL were tested for statistical significance using group t-test and x2 test for comparisons between the residential home dwelling elderly and the home for the aged dwelling elderly. Results: Comparison of assessment for K-ADL and K-IADL in two different dwelling types was significant. Performance of ADL and IADL depend upon their living environment such as social status, number of children, income, present illness as well as age group. This study also showed significant differences of performance in some activities of ADL and IADL between the elderly who live in their own home and live in home for the aged. Comparison of performance of ADL and IADL in different dwelling types revealed that only one item of ADL was significant but only one item of IADL was not significant. It means that IADL is more difficult activities in the home for the aged dwelling elderly than the residential home dwelling elderly. The coupled elderly has more independent in some ADL and IADL activities compared with the single elderly. Conclusion: Using K-ADL and K-IADL is more convenient for Korean elderly. Medical professional consider some factors like dwelling style, social status, existing diseases and disabilities in order to care the elderly and train him/her activities of daily living as well as instrumental activities of daily living. Medical professional, especially physical and occupational therapist emphasize the training items which are bathing of ADL and grooming, housework, preparing meals, laundry, traveling, public transportation, shopping, using telephone and taking medicine of IADL based on the result of this study.

• International Area Studies Review
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.215-235
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• 2018

Policy concerns related to raising fertility rates are not only common interests among the OECD countries, but they are also issues of great concern to South Korea whose fertility rate is the lowest in the world. The fertility rate in South Korea continues to decline, even though most of the national budget has been spent on measures to address this and many studies have been conducted on the increase in the fertility rates. In this regard, this study aims to verify the effectiveness of the detailed factors affecting the fertility rate that have been discussed in the previous studies on fertility rates, and to investigate the overall trend toward enhancing the quality of life and increasing the fertility rate through macroscopic and structural studies under the recognition of problems related to the policy approaches through the case studies of the European countries. Toward this end, this study investigated if a high quality of life in advanced countries contributes to the increase in the fertility rate, which country serves as a state model that has a high quality of life and a high fertility rate, and what kind of social and policy environment does the country have with regard to childbirth. The analysis of the OECD Better Life Index (BLI) and CIA fertility rate data showed that the countries whose people enjoy a high quality of life do not necessarily have high fertility rates. In addition, under the recognition that a country with a high quality of life and a high birth rate serves as a state model that South Korea should aim for, the social characteristics of Iceland, Ireland, and New Zealand, which turned out to have both a high quality of life and a high fertility rate, were compared with those of Germany, which showed a high quality of life but a low fertility rate. According to the comparison results, the three countries that were mentioned showed higher awareness of gender equality; therefore, the gender wage gap was small. It was also confirmed that the governments of these countries support various policies that promote both parents sharing the care of their children. In Germany, on the other hand, the gender wage gap was large and the fertility rate was low. In a related move, however, the German government has made active efforts to a paradigm shift toward gender equality. The fertility rate increases when the synergy lies in the relationship between parents and children; therefore, awareness about gender equality should be firmly established both at home and in the labor market. For this reason, the government is required to provide support for the childbirth and rearing environment through appropriate family policies, and exert greater efforts to enhance the effectiveness of the relevant systems rather than simply promoting a system construction. Furthermore, it is necessary to help people in making their own childbearing decisions during the process of creating a better society by changing the national goal from 'raising the fertility rate' to 'creating a healthy society made of happy families'

• Journal of muscle and joint health
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.37-49
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• 1996

The joint diseases threaten modern people's healthy life. They bring about a long pain, an anasarca, loss of joint function or even deformation and rigidity of joint, limiting people's ordinary activities much. The chronic joint patients may be subject to some hypochondria caused by anxiety for their life, social isolation, financial problem and physical disability. Therefore, this population should continue to be duely taken care of by medical personnels. In particular, nurses should adequately help these people to recover and improve their health through suitable adaptations. With such basic conceptions in mind, this study was aimed at reviewing these patients' conditions in their ordinary life before and after a plastic operation for artificial joint replacement as well as their satisfaction with their life. For this purpose, those patients who underwent some plastic operations for artificial joint replacement at university hospitals in Seoul from January 2, 1993 to June 30, 1995 were selected as the population of this study. Among them, 87 people were randomly sampled to answer a questionnaire designed specially. For the surveying tools, Jette's (1980) scale was applied to address the sample people's inconveniences experienced and supports received in their ordinary life, while the scale of Wood, Wylie & Sheafer was used to measure their satisfaction with their life. The collected data were analyzed for percentiles, means, SD, t-test and Pearson's correlations. The results of survey can be summarized as follows ; As a result of t-test the frequencies of other people's support before and after the plastic operation, it was disclosed that those who underwent the operation were supported less frequently. In addition, as a result of t-testing their satisfaction with life before and after the operation, it was found that the operation increased their satisfaction with life significantly. Meanwhile, as a result of t-test inconveniences, frequencies of supports and life satisfaction before and after the plastic operation for artificial knee replacement, it was disclosed that only the inconveniences were significantly reduced after the operation. In contrast, the t-test the variables before and after the plastic operation for artificial hip replacement, it was found that only the frequencies of other people's supports were significant reduced after the operation. Furthermore, the differences 6 months, one year and two years after the plastic operation for artificial joint replacement were t-tested on the variables. As a result, it was disclosed that people's inconvenience, frequencies of supports and life satisfaction were not improved 6 months after the operation but their frequencies of supports decreased significantly one year after, while their inconveniences and life satisfaction were significantly improved two years after. As a result of analyzing the variables with Pearson's correlations, inconveniences and frequency of supports were negatively correlated significantly with the life satisfaction. In conclusion, the plastic operation for artificial joint replacement significantly improved people's living inconveniences, reduced their frequency of other people's support and enhanced their satisfaction with life. To break don the plastic operation for artificial knee replacement improved patients' inconveniences, while the plastic operation for artificial hip replacement not only improved patients' inconveniences but reduced the frequencies of other people's support also. Finally, the finding that the plastic operation for artificial joint replacement brought about the improvement two years after suggests that this period is needed for the patients to adapt themselves to the post-operation conditions.

• Journal of Korean Dental Hygiene Science
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.65-77
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• 2023

Background: The shortage of dental hygienists as assistant is a great concern to dental clinics, while dental hygienists are rather pursuing the role of oral hygiene control and preventive treatments which is the main role for dental hygienists in the United States. The dental hygienist and dental assistant system in the United States can be a reference in these discussions. Methods: Educational requirements for licensure and work areas for dental hygienists and dental assistants were investigated through the information provided by the American Dental Association (ADA), American Dental Hygienists Association, National Board Dental Hygiene Examination (NBDHE), Dental Assistants Association of America (ADAA), and Dental Assistants National Board (DANB). Results: In the United States, each state has different systems, but in general, dental hygienists obtain licenses after completing 2~3 years of associate degree programs in dental hygiene after obtaining basic learning skills, and mainly perform tasks related to patient screening procedures, oral hygiene management and preventive care. Dental assistants can take the license test after completing a training course of 9~11 months to obtain a dental assistant certification. Additional expanded work typically requires passing state qualification tests, completing a training program, obtaining a degree, or gaining clinical experience for a certain period of time, depending on the state Conclusion: The scope of work of dental hygienists designated by the Medical Engineer Act and the Enforcement Decree in Korea includes both the work of dental hygienists and dental assistants in the United States, and if a dental assistant system like the United States is introduced to address the current shortage of dental assistants, institutional supplementation such as adjustment of the scope of work and expansion of the role of dental hygienists in oral hygiene management and prevention work is needed and in-depth discussion is necessary.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.31-46
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• 2012

The most critical technology to implement ubiquitous health care is Ubiquitous Sensor Network (USN) technology which makes use of various sensor technologies, processor integration technology, and wireless network technology-Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Wireless Sensor Network (WSN)-to easily gather and monitor actual physical environment information from a remote site. With the feature, the USN technology can make the information technology of the existing virtual space expanded to actual environments. However, although the RFID and the WSN have technical similarities and mutual effects, they have been recognized to be studied separately, and sufficient studies have not been conducted on the technical integration of the RFID and the WSN. Therefore, EPCglobal which realized the issue proposed the EPC Sensor Network to efficiently integrate and interoperate the RFID and WSN technologies based on the international standard EPCglobal network. The proposed EPC Sensor Network technology uses the Complex Event Processing method in the middleware to integrate data occurring through the RFID and the WSN in a single environment and to interoperate the events based on the EPCglobal network. However, as the EPC Sensor Network technology continuously performs its operation even in the case that the minimum conditions are not to be met to find complex events in the middleware, its operation cost rises. Moreover, since the technology is based on the EPCglobal network, it can neither perform its operation only for the sake of sensor data, nor connect or interoperate with each information system in which the most important information in the ubiquitous computing environment is saved. Therefore, to address the problems of the existing system, we proposed the design and implementation of USN integration management system. For this, we first proposed an integration system that manages RFID and WSN data based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). Secondly, we defined the minimum conditions of the complex events to detect unnecessary complex events in the middleware, and proposed an algorithm that can extract complex events only when the minimum conditions are to be met. To evaluate the performance of the proposed methods we implemented SIP-based integration management system.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.32-43
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• 2009

Trust has been studied extensively in psychology, economics, and sociology, and its importance has been emphasized not only in marketing, but also in business disciplines in general. Unlike past relationships between suppliers and buyers, which take considerable advantage of private networks and may involve unethical business practices, partnerships between suppliers and buyers are at the core of success for industrial marketing amid intense global competition in the 21st century. A high level of mutual cooperation occurs through an exchange relationship based on trust, which brings long-term benefits, competitive enhancements, and transaction cost reductions, among other benefits, for both buyers and suppliers. In spite of the important role of trust, existing studies in buy-supply situations overlook the role of trust and do not systematically analyze the effect of trust on relational performance. Consequently, an in-depth study that determines the relation of trust to the relational performance between buyers and suppliers of business services is absolutely needed. Business services in this study, which include those supporting the manufacturing industry, are drawing attention as the economic growth engine for the next generation. The Korean government has selected business services as a strategic area for the development of manufacturing sectors. Since the demands for opening business services markets are becoming fiercer, the competitiveness of the business service industry must be promoted now more than ever. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the mutual trust between buyers and suppliers on relational performance. Specifically, this study proposed a theoretical model of trust-relational performance in the transactions of business services and empirically tested the hypotheses delineated from the framework. The study suggests strategic implications based on research findings. Empirical data were collected via multiple methods, including via telephone, mail, and in-person interviews. Sample companies were knowledge-based companies supplying and purchasing business services in Korea. The present study collected data on a dyadic basis. Each pair of sample companies includes a buying company and its corresponding supplying company. Mutual trust was traced for each pair of companies. This study proposes a model of trust-relational performance of buying-supplying for business services. The model consists of trust and its antecedents and consequences. The trust of buyers is classified into trust toward the supplying company and trust toward salespersons. Viewing trust both at the individual level and the organizational level is based on the research of Doney and Cannon (1997). Normally, buyers are the subject of trust, but this study supposes that suppliers are the subjects. Hence, it uniquely focused on the bilateral perspective of perceived risk. In other words, suppliers, like buyers, are the subject of trust since transactions are normally bilateral. From this point of view, suppliers' trust in buyers is as important as buyers' trust in suppliers. The suppliers' trust is influenced by the extent to which it trusts the buying companies and the buyers. This classification of trust using an individual level and an organization level is based on the suggestion of Doney and Cannon (1997). Trust affects the process of supplier selection, which works in a bilateral manner. Suppliers are actively involved in the supplier selection process, working very closely with buyers. In addition, the process is affected by the extent to which each party trusts its partners. The selection process consists of certain steps: recognition, information search, supplier selection, and performance evaluation. As a result of the process, both buyers and suppliers evaluate the performance and take corrective actions on the basis of such outcomes as tangible, intangible, and/or side effects. The measurement of trust used for the present study was developed on the basis of the studies of Mayer, Davis and Schoorman (1995) and Mayer and Davis (1999). Based on their recommendations, the three dimensions of trust used for the study include ability, benevolence, and integrity. The original questions were adjusted to the context of the transactions of business services. For example, a question such as "He/she has professional capabilities" has been changed to "The salesperson showed professional capabilities while we talked about our products." The measurement used for this study differs from those used in previous studies (Rotter 1967; Sullivan and Peterson 1982; Dwyer and Oh 1987). The measurements of the antecedents and consequences of trust used for this study were developed on the basis of Doney and Cannon (1997). The original questions were adjusted to the context of transactions in business services. In particular, questions were developed for both buyers and suppliers to address the following factors: reputation (integrity, customer care, good-will), market standing (company size, market share, positioning in the industry), willingness to customize (product, process, delivery), information sharing (proprietary information, private information), willingness to maintain relationships, perceived professionalism, authority empowerment, buyer-seller similarity, and contact frequency. As a consequential variable of trust, relational performance was measured. Relational performance is classified into tangible effects, intangible effects, and side effects. Tangible effects include financial performance; intangible effects include improvements in relations, network developing, and internal employee satisfaction; side effects include those not included either in the tangible or intangible effects. Three hundred fifty pairs of companies were contacted, and one hundred five pairs of companies responded. After deleting five company pairs because of incomplete responses, one hundred five pairs of companies were used for data analysis. The response ratio of the companies used for data analysis is 30% (105/350), which is above the average response ratio in industrial marketing research. As for the characteristics of the respondent companies, the majority of the companies operate service businesses for both buyers (85.4%) and suppliers (81.8%). The majority of buyers (76%) deal with consumer goods, while the majority of suppliers (70%) deal with industrial goods. This may imply that buyers process the incoming material, parts, and components to produce the finished consumer goods. As indicated by their report of the length of acquaintance with their partners, suppliers appear to have longer business relationships than do buyers. Hypothesis 1 tested the effects of buyer-supplier characteristics on trust. The salesperson's professionalism (t=2.070, p<0.05) and authority empowerment (t=2.328, p<0.05) positively affected buyers' trust toward suppliers. On the other hand, authority empowerment (t=2.192, p<0.05) positively affected supplier trust toward buyers. For both buyers and suppliers, the degree of authority empowerment plays a crucial role in the maintenance of their trust in each other. Hypothesis 2 tested the effects of buyerseller relational characteristics on trust. Buyers tend to trust suppliers, as suppliers make every effort to contact buyers (t=2.212, p<0.05). This tendency has also been shown to be much stronger for suppliers (t=2.591, p<0.01). On the other hand suppliers trust buyers because suppliers perceive buyers as being similar to themselves (t=2.702, p<0.01). This finding confirmed the results of Crosby, Evans, and Cowles (1990), which reported that suppliers and buyers build relationships through regular meetings, either for business or personal matters. Hypothesis 3 tested the effects of trust on perceived risk. It has been found that for both suppliers and buyers the lower is the trust, the higher is the perceived risk (t=-6.621, p<0.01 for buyers; t=-2.437, p<0.05). Interestingly, this tendency has been shown to be much stronger for buyers than for suppliers. One possible explanation for this higher level of perceived risk is that buyers normally perceive higher risks than do suppliers in transactions involving business services. For this reason, it is necessary for suppliers to implement risk reduction strategies for buyers. Hypothesis 4 tested the effects of trust on information searching. It has been found that for both suppliers and buyers, contrary to expectation, trust depends on their partner's reputation (t=2.929, p<0.01 for buyers; t=2.711, p<0.05 for suppliers). This finding shows that suppliers with good reputations tend to be trusted. Prior experience did not show any significant relationship with trust for either buyers or suppliers. Hypothesis 5 tested the effects of trust on supplier/buyer selection. Unlike buyers, suppliers tend to trust buyers when they think that previous transactions with buyers were important (t=2.913 p<0.01). However, this study did not show any significant relationship between source loyalty and the trust of buyers in suppliers. Hypothesis 6 tested the effects of trust on relational performances. For buyers and suppliers, financial performance reportedly improved when they trusted their partners (t=2.301, p<0.05 for buyers; t=3.692, p<0.01 for suppliers). It is interesting that this tendency was much stronger for suppliers than it was for buyers. Similarly, competitiveness was reported to improve when buyers and suppliers trusted their partners (t=3.563, p<0.01 for buyers; t=3.042, p<0.01 for suppliers). For suppliers, efficiency and productivity were reportedly improved when they trusted buyers (t=2.673, p<0.01). Other performance indices showed insignificant relationships with trust. The findings of this study have some strategic implications. First and most importantly, trust-based transactions are beneficial for both suppliers and buyers. As verified in the study, financial performance can be improved through efforts to build and maintain mutual trust. Similarly, competitiveness can be increased through the same kinds of effort. Second, trust-based transactions can facilitate the reduction of perceived risks inherent in the purchasing situation. This finding has implications for both suppliers and buyers. It is generally believed that buyers perceive higher risks in a highly involved purchasing situation. To reduce risks, previous studies have recommended that suppliers devise risk-reducing tactics. Moving beyond these recommendations, the present study uniquely focused on the bilateral perspective of perceived risk. In other words, suppliers are also susceptible to perceived risks, especially when they supply services that require very technical and sophisticated manipulations and maintenance. Consequently, buyers and suppliers must solve problems together in close collaboration. Hence, mutual trust plays a crucial role in the problem-solving process. Third, as found in this study, the more authority a salesperson has, the more he or she can be trusted. This finding is very important with regard to tactics. Building trust is a long-term assignment; however, when mutual trust has not been developed, suppliers can overcome the problems they encounter by empowering a salesperson with the authority to make certain decisions. This finding applies to suppliers as well.