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An Empirical Analysis of In-app Purchase Behavior in Mobile Games (모바일 게임 인앱구매에 영향을 주는 요인에 관한 연구)

  • Moonkyoung Jang;Changkeun Kim;Byungjoon Yoo
    • Information Systems Review
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    • v.22 no.2
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    • pp.43-52
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    • 2020
  • The mobile game industry has become the one of the fastest growing industries with its astonishing market size. Despite its industrial importance, a few studies empirically considered actual purchasing behavior in mobile games rather than the intention to purchase. Therefore, this paper investigates the key drivers of in-app purchase by analyzing the game-log dataset provided from a mobile game company in Korea. Specifically, the effects of goal-directed, habitual and social-interacted playing behavior are analyzed on in-app purchase. Furthermore, the recursive relationship with playing and purchasing behaviorsis also considered. The result shows that all suggested factors have positive impacts on in-app purchase in the current period. In addition, the effect of previous habitual playing has a positive impact, but the effect of social-interacted playing and in-app purchase in the previous period have negative impacts on in-app purchase of the current period. These findings can improve our understanding of the impact of game playing on in-app purchase in mobile games, and provide meaningful insights for researchers and practitioners.

Correlation of commute time with the risk of subjective mental health problems: 6th Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS)

  • Hyo Choon Lee;Eun Hye Yang;Soonsu Shin;Seoung Ho Moon;Nan Song;Jae-Hong Ryoo
    • Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
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    • v.35
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    • pp.9.1-9.10
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    • 2023
  • Background: Studies conducted so far on the link between commute time and mental health among Koreans remain insufficient. In this study, we attempted to identify the relationship between commute time and subjective mental health using the 6th Korean Working Conditions Survey (KWCS). Methods: Self-reported commute time was divided into four groups: ≤ 30 (group 1), 30-60 (group 2), 60-120 (group 3), and > 120 minutes (group 4). Subjective depression was defined as a score of 50 points or less on the WHO-5 well-being index. Subjective anxiety and fatigue were defined as answering 'yes' to the questionnaire on whether they had experienced it over the past year. The analysis of variance, t-test, and χ2 test was used to analyze the differences among the characteristics of the study participants according to commute time, depression, anxiety, and fatigue. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for depression, anxiety, and fatigue according to commute time were calculated using multivariate logistic regression models adjusted for sex, age, monthly income, occupation, company size, weekly working hours, and shift work status. Results: Long commute times showed increased ORs and graded increasing trends for depression, anxiety, and fatigue. The ORs for depression increased significantly in group 2 (1.06 [1.01-1.11]), group 3 (1.23 [1.13-1.33]), and group 4 (1.31 [1.09-1.57]) compared to group 1 (reference). The ORs for anxiety increased significantly in group 2 (1.17 [1.06-1.29]), group 3 (1.43 [1.23-1.65]) and group 4 (1.89 [1.42-2.53]). The ORs for fatigue increased significantly in group 2 (1.09 [1.04-1.15]), group 3 (1.32 [1.21-1.43]), and group 4 (1.51 [1.25-1.82]). Conclusions: This study highlights that the risk of depression, anxiety, and fatigue increases with commute time.

An Empirical Study on Consumers' Dissatisfaction, Attribution and Complaint Behavior (소비자의 구매 후 불만족과 귀인 및 불평행동에 대한 실증적 연구)

  • In-Kon, Koh
    • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.69-79
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    • 2024
  • Companies should resolve consumer dissatisfaction and increase brand loyalty by actively identifying the factors of consumer dissatisfaction and proactively responding to expected complaint behavior to induce repurchase. This is a management goal that should be pursued in common regardless of the size of the company. The specific purpose of this study is to find out whether the degree of dissatisfaction differs depending on whether or not consumers' expected performance before purchase and the actual perceived performance after purchase is compared, whether the degree of dissatisfaction affects the type of complaint behavior, which is a subsequent behavior, and whether the attributable behavior has a moderating effect in this process and whether the persistence of the result and the controllability of the cause act as a factor that determines the attribution position. In particular, compared to general companies, venture companies are more likely to overload the information processing ability of managers and are likely to make various irrational errors in decision making, so this study has important academic and practical implications. As a result of the analysis, the negative inconsistency group had the highest degree of dissatisfaction, and the higher the degree of inconsistency, the higher the dissatisfaction. The attributable behavior of unsatisfied consumers had a moderating effect on the degree of dissatisfaction, and the dissatisfaction was significantly higher in the external attributable group than the internal attributable group, which was statistically significant. On the other hand, the persistence of the result had a statistically significant effect on the attribution position, but the controllability of the cause was not. The degree of attributable behavior and dissatisfaction did not affect the type of complaining behavior, showing limited influence. Along with the interpretation of these results, this study presents various implications, especially for small and medium-sized/venture companies that provide new durable products.

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A Study on the Intenna Based on PIFA with Multi Element (Mulit Element를 이용한 PIFA 구조의 Intenna에 관한 연구)

  • Lim, Yo-Han;Chang, Ki-Hun;Yoon, Young-Joong;Kim, Yong-Jin;Kim, Young-Eil;Yoon, Ick-Jae
    • The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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    • v.18 no.7
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    • pp.784-795
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    • 2007
  • In this thesis, the Multi element antenna with wideband and enhanced gain characteristic is proposed to operate at both frequency range from 824 MHz to 896 11Hz for the CDMA and frequency range from 908.5 MHz to 914 MHz for the RFID band. The proposed antenna has tile size of $35{\times}15{\times}5mm^3$ in order to put it in the A model of S company and each element of the proposed antenna is folded to obtain the minimum size. To obtain the antenna with wideband and high gain characteristic, the radiator of the antenna is divided into 4 elements. As a result, bandwidth of the proposed antenna become broader and lower center frequency is appeared due to increased and lengthened current path. Moreover, the enhanced gain characteristic is verified because divided element structure that induct uniform current distribution can get increased antenna efficiency. To attain more uniform current distribution, modified structure of the feeding point that can deliver currents directly is designed. The antenna that alters the feeding structure has higher gain value. Each element is folded to increase the current paths considering the current directions to attain the miniaturization of the antenna. To measure the handset antenna, the handset case must be considered. Even though antenna is designed for predicted characteristic, the resonance frequency is shifted and antenna gain is deteriorated at predicted frequency while antenna is set in the handset case. 1.08 GHz of the resonant frequency is determined after frequency shift from 150 MHz to 200 MHz is confirmed and the maximum gain is measured as 3.1 dBi while antenna is not set in the handset. In case handset case is considered, the experimental results show that the impedance bandwidth for VSWR<2 is from 0.824 GHz to 0.936 GHz(110 MHz). This result appears that the proposed antenna can cover both CDMA and RFID band at once. The measured gain is from -3.4 dBi to -0.5 dBi and it has omni-directional pattern practically.

Current status of global seed industry and role of golden seed project in Korea (국내외 종자산업의 현황과 GSP사업의 역할)

  • Shin, Wan Sik
    • Journal of Plant Biotechnology
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    • v.42 no.2
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    • pp.71-76
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    • 2015
  • Developed countries have set seed industry as a new growth engine, which demands strong support from the government. Multinational seed companies such as Monsanto and DuPont have made huge financial investment to secure their major roles in the global market. To spur domestic seed industry performance, Korean government laid out the foundation for developing seed industry through policy promotion in the late 2000s. In this paper, I look at the current state of the domestic and international seed market to provide information for improving the efficiency of the propulsion of the Golden Seed Project (GSP) along with its vision. The increasing size of global giant companies has been regarded to monopolize the world seed industry wherein ten renowned companies occupy 73% of the overall global market. In effect, this causes a price hike due to limited seed choices. Domestic seed market has been stuck in a range due to a sustained low agricultural production resulting in decreased seed demand and market size. Though breeding technologies for rice and vegetables are world-class, the technologies for top global crops such as cabbage, paprika, and forage are insufficient therefore professionals in this field are not easily employed. Moreover, there is a lack in appropriate infrastructure set up in the universities which adds to ineffective training of professionals. Being a key-supporting industry for agriculture, seed industry should be granted with strong and sustainable investment support from the government. In view thereof, GSP, which started in 2012, ambitions to spur researches outlined by excellent professionals in universities and seed companies aimed to drive seed export volume and quality and attain domestic seed self-sufficiency through adoption of export- and import-substitution seed types (10 varieties each) development strategies. To develop Korea's seed industry excellent achievement of GSP's goals should be drawn successfully and to do this beside development of high quality seeds, support programs for promotion of seed exports are also needed.

The Gains To Bidding Firms' Stock Returns From Merger (기업합병의 성과에 영향을 주는 요인에 대한 실증적 연구)

  • Kim, Yong-Kap
    • Management & Information Systems Review
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    • v.23
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    • pp.41-74
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    • 2007
  • In Korea, corporate merger activities were activated since 1980, and nowadays(particuarly since 1986) the changes in domestic and international economic circumstances have made corporate managers have strong interests in merger. Korea and America have different business environments and it is easily conceivable that there exists many differences in motives, methods, and effects of mergers between the two countries. According to recent studies on takeover bids in America, takeover bids have information effects, tax implications, and co-insurance effects, and the form of payment(cash versus securities), the relative size of target and bidder, the leverage effect, Tobin's q, number of bidders(single versus multiple bidder), the time period (before 1968, 1968-1980, 1981 and later), and the target firm reaction (hostile versus friendly) are important determinants of the magnitude of takeover gains and their distribution between targets and bidders at the announcement of takeover bids. This study examines the theory of takeover bids, the status quo and problems of merger in Korea, and then investigates how the announcement of merger are reflected in common stock returns of bidding firms, finally explores empirically the factors influencing abnormal returns of bidding firms' stock price. The hypotheses of this study are as follows ; Shareholders of bidding firms benefit from mergers. And common stock returns of bidding firms at the announcement of takeover bids, shows significant differences according to the condition of the ratio of target size relative to bidding firm, whether the target being a member of the conglomerate to which bidding firm belongs, whether the target being a listed company, the time period(before 1986, 1986, and later), the number of bidding firm's stock in exchange for a stock of the target, whether the merger being a horizontal and vertical merger or a conglomerate merger, and the ratios of debt to equity capital of target and bidding firm. The data analyzed in this study were drawn from public announcements of proposals to acquire a target firm by means of merger. The sample contains all bidding firms which were listed in the stock market and also engaged in successful mergers in the period 1980 through 1992 for which there are daily stock returns. A merger bid was considered successful if it resulted in a completed merger and the target firm disappeared as a separate entity. The final sample contains 113 acquiring firms. The research hypotheses examined in this study are tested by applying an event-type methodology similar to that described in Dodd and Warner. The ordinary-least-squares coefficients of the market-model regression were estimated over the period t=-135 to t=-16 relative to the date of the proposal's initial announcement, t=0. Daily abnormal common stock returns were calculated for each firm i over the interval t=-15 to t=+15. A daily average abnormal return(AR) for each day t was computed. Average cumulative abnormal returns($CART_{T_1,T_2}$) were also derived by summing the $AR_t's$ over various intervals. The expected values of $AR_t$ and $CART_{T_1,T_2}$ are zero in the absence of abnormal performance. The test statistics of $AR_t$ and $CAR_{T_1,T_2}$ are based on the average standardized abnormal return($ASAR_t$) and the average standardized cumulative abnormal return ($ASCAR_{T_1,T_2}$), respectively. Assuming that the individual abnormal returns are normal and independent across t and across securities, the statistics $Z_t$ and $Z_{T_1,T_2}$ which follow a unit-normal distribution(Dodd and Warner), are used to test the hypotheses that the average standardized abnormal returns and the average cumulative standardized abnormal returns equal zero.

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Perfluoropolymer Membranes of Tetrafluoroethylene and 2,2,4Trifluofo- 5Trifluorometoxy- 1,3Dioxole.

  • Arcella, V.;Colaianna, P.;Brinati, G.;Gordano, A.;Clarizia, G.;Tocci, E.;Drioli, E.
    • Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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    • 1999.07a
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    • pp.39-42
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    • 1999
  • Perfluoropolymers represent the ultimate resistance to hostile chemical environments and high service temperature, attributed to the presence of fluorine in the polymer backbone, i.e. to the high bond energy of C-F and C-C bonds of fluorocarbons. Copolymers of Tetrafluoroethylene (TEE) and 2, 2, 4Trifluoro-5Trifluorometoxy- 1, 3Dioxole (TTD), commercially known as HYFLON AD, are amorphous perfluoropolymers with glass transition temperature (Tg)higher than room temperature, showing a thermal decomposition temperature exceeding 40$0^{\circ}C$. These polymer systems are highly soluble in fluorinated solvents, with low solution viscosities. This property allows the preparation of self-supported and composite membranes with desired membrane thickness. Symmetric and asymmetric perfluoropolymer membranes, made with HYFLON AD, have been prepared and evaluated. Porous and not porous symmetric membranes have been obtained by solvent evaporation with various processing conditions. Asymmetric membranes have been prepared by th wet phase inversion method. Measure of contact angle to distilled water have been carried out. Figure 1 compares experimental results with those of other commercial membranes. Contact angles of about 120$^{\circ}$for our amorphous perfluoropolymer membranes demonstrate that they posses a high hydrophobic character. Measure of contact angles to hexandecane have been also carried out to evaluate the organophobic character. Rsults are reported in Figure 2. The observed strong organophobicity leads to excellent fouling resistance and inertness. Porous membranes with pore size between 30 and 80 nanometers have shown no permeation to water at pressures as high as 10 bars. However high permeation to gases, such as O2, N2 and CO2, and no selectivities were observed. Considering the porous structure of the membrane, this behavior was expected. In consideration of the above properties, possible useful uses in th field of gas- liquid separations are envisaged for these membranes. A particularly promising application is in the field of membrane contactors, equipments in which membranes are used to improve mass transfer coefficients in respect to traditional extraction and absorption processes. Gas permeation properties have been evaluated for asymmetric membranes and composite symmetric ones. Experimental permselectivity values, obtained at different pressure differences, to various single gases are reported in Tab. 1, 2 and 3. Experimental data have been compared with literature data obtained with membranes made with different amorphous perfluoropolymer systems, such as copolymers of Perfluoro2, 2dimethyl dioxole (PDD) and Tetrafluorethylene, commercialized by the Du Pont Company with the trade name of Teflon AF. An interesting linear relationship between permeability and the glass transition temperature of the polymer constituting the membrane has been observed. Results are descussed in terms of polymer chain structure, which affects the presence of voids at molecular scale and their size distribution. Molecular Dyanmics studies are in progress in order to support the understanding of these results. A modified Theodoru- Suter method provided by the Amorphous Cell module of InsightII/Discover was used to determine the chain packing. A completely amorphous polymer box of about 3.5 nm was considered. Last but not least the use of amorphous perfluoropolymer membranes appears to be ideal when separation processes have to be performed in hostile environments, i.e. high temperatures and aggressive non-aqueous media, such as chemicals and solvents. In these cases Hyflon AD membranes can exploit the outstanding resistance of perfluoropolymers.

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Could a Product with Diverged Reviews Ratings Be Better?: The Change of Consumer Attitude Depending on the Converged vs. Diverged Review Ratings and Consumer's Regulatory Focus (평점이 수렴되지 않는 리뷰의 제품들이 더 좋을 수도 있을까?: 제품 리뷰평점의 분산과 소비자의 조절초점 성향에 따른 소비자 태도 변화)

  • Yi, Eunju;Park, Do-Hyung
    • Knowledge Management Research
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    • v.22 no.3
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    • pp.273-293
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    • 2021
  • Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the size of the e-commerce has been increased rapidly. This pandemic, which made contact-less communication culture in everyday life made the e-commerce market to be opened even to the consumers who would hesitate to purchase and pay by electronic device without any personal contacts and seeing or touching the real products. Consumers who have experienced the easy access and convenience of the online purchase would continue to take those advantages even after the pandemic. During this time of transformation, however, the size of information source for the consumers has become even shrunk into a flat screen and limited to visual only. To provide differentiated and competitive information on products, companies are adopting AR/VR and steaming technologies but the reviews from the honest users need to be recognized as important in that it is regarded as strong as the well refined product information provided by marketing professionals of the company and companies may obtain useful insight for product development, marketing and sales strategies. Then from the consumer's point of view, if the ratings of reviews are widely diverged how consumers would process the review information before purchase? Are non-converged ratings always unreliable and worthless? In this study, we analyzed how consumer's regulatory focus moderate the attitude to process the diverged information. This experiment was designed as a 2x2 factorial study to see how the variance of product review ratings (high vs. low) for cosmetics affects product attitudes by the consumers' regulatory focus (prevention focus vs. improvement focus). As a result of the study, it was found that prevention-focused consumers showed high product attitude when the review variance was low, whereas promotion-focused consumers showed high product attitude when the review variance was high. With such a study, this thesis can explain that even if a product with exactly the same average rating, the converged or diverged review can be interpreted differently by customer's regulatory focus. This paper has a theoretical contribution to elucidate the mechanism of consumer's information process when the information is not converged. In practice, as reviews and sales records of each product are accumulated, as an one of applied knowledge management types with big data, companies may develop and provide even reinforced customer experience by providing personalized and optimized products and review information.

An Analysis of the Internal Marketing Impact on the Market Capitalization Fluctuation Rate based on the Online Company Reviews from Jobplanet (직원을 위한 내부마케팅이 기업의 시가 총액 변동률에 미치는 영향 분석: 잡플래닛 기업 리뷰를 중심으로)

  • Kichul Choi;Sang-Yong Tom Lee
    • Information Systems Review
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    • v.20 no.2
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    • pp.39-62
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    • 2018
  • Thanks to the growth of computing power and the recent development of data analytics, researchers have started to work on the data produced by users through the Internet or social media. This study is in line with these recent research trends and attempts to adopt data analytical techniques. We focus on the impact of "internal marketing" factors on firm performance, which is typically studied through survey methodologies. We looked into the job review platform Jobplanet (www.jobplanet.co.kr), which is a website where employees and former employees anonymously review companies and their management. With web crawling processes, we collected over 40K data points and performed morphological analysis to classify employees' reviews for internal marketing data. We then implemented econometric analysis to see the relationship between internal marketing and market capitalization. Contrary to the findings of extant survey studies, internal marketing is positively related to a firm's market capitalization only within a limited area. In most of the areas, the relationships are negative. Particularly, female-friendly environment and human resource development (HRD) are the areas exhibiting positive relations with market capitalization in the manufacturing industry. In the service industry, most of the areas, such as employ welfare and work-life balance, are negatively related with market capitalization. When firm size is small (or the history is short), female-friendly environment positively affect firm performance. On the contrary, when firm size is big (or the history is long), most of the internal marketing factors are either negative or insignificant. We explain the theoretical contributions and managerial implications with these results.

The Effect of Mutual Trust on Relational Performance in Supplier-Buyer Relationships for Business Services Transactions (재상업복무교역중적매매관계중상호신임대관계적효적영향(在商业服务交易中的买卖关系中相互信任对关系绩效的影响))

  • Noh, Jeon-Pyo
    • 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.

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