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Formation of New Approaches to the Use of Information Technology and Search For Innovative Methods of Training Specialists within the Pan-European Educational Space

  • Stratan-Artyshkova, Tetiana;Kozak, Khrystyna;Syrotina, Olena;Lisnevska, Nataliya;Sichkar, Svitlana;Pertsov, Oleksandr;Kuchai, Oleksandr
    • International Journal of Computer Science & Network Security
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    • v.22 no.8
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    • pp.97-104
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    • 2022
  • European integration processes have acted as a catalyst for the emergence of a new type of educational environment, which is characterized by competent flexibility of specialists. Therefore, the article focuses on professional training of teachers in the context of European integration processes using information technology and the search for innovative methods of training specialists. One of the educational priorities in Europe is to create a new model of a teacher who has an academic education, knows innovative methods, is able to perform functions and tasks efficiently and professionally, adequately, quickly and correctly respond to changes and innovations. The tasks facing education in the European dimension are formulated. The main trends in the education of teachers in modern Europe are described: the need to deepen and expand subject training programs in pedagogical institutions of Higher Education, which will allow autonomy of activity, awareness of responsibility for independent creative decisions, create favorable conditions for the development of professionalism through the use of Information Technology and the search for innovative methods of training specialists. At the present stage, various models of teacher training are being developed based on the University and practical concept using information technology and searching for innovative methods of training specialists. On this basis, two different theories of perception of teacher education were formed: as preparation of teachers for work throughout their professional career; as preparation for the first years of professional work, which is periodically repeated in the process of continuous professional training and improvement. Among the advantages that the use of Information Technology and the search for innovative methods of training specialists to implement the learning process, it is worth mentioning the following: simultaneous use of several channels of perception of the student or student in the learning process, thanks to which the integration of information processed by different sensory organs is achieved; the ability to simulate complex real experiments; visualization of abstract information by dynamic representation of processes, etc.

A Study on the Composition of Factors in Teaching Competence Using Artificial Intelligence of Pre-service Early Childhood Teachers (예비 유아 교사들의 인공지능 활용 교육역량 요인 구성 연구)

  • Eunchul Lee
    • Journal of Christian Education in Korea
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    • v.72
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    • pp.183-203
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    • 2022
  • The purpose of this study is to construct factors of AI education utilization competency. AI education utilization competency is used as basic data for education to enhance the AI education competency of pre-service early childhood teachers. To this end, 7 studies related to competency factors and models were selected by searching for previous studies. Seven preceding studies were analyzed. As a result, 18 competency factors were extracted, including understanding of artificial intelligence. The extracted competency elements were divided into six areas, which are divided into understanding subject knowledge through coding, class preparation, class management, class result feedback, class guidance, and self-development. And 15 factors were constructed. The draft formed through coding was improved through review by three early childhood education experts. Factors improved through expert review were structured by classifying them into knowledge, skills, and attitudes to organize the curriculum. The validity of the structured competency factor was verified through expert Delphi. As a result of the Delphi verification, all factors were converged in the first survey. Through this, 6 competency areas, 11 competency factors, and 19 competency factors were composed of knowledge, 10 skills, and 5 attitudes. The implication is that the competency factors presented as a result of this study can be used as basic data for organizing a curriculum to improve the ability of pre-service early childhood teachers to use artificial intelligence education.

Conceptual analysis of nursing students' clinical competency in simulation-based practical training (시뮬레이션 실습 교육에서 나타난 간호대학생의 임상수행능력에 대한 개념분석)

  • Cho-Won Lee;Eun-Young Kim
    • Journal of the Korean Applied Science and Technology
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    • v.40 no.5
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    • pp.1176-1190
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    • 2023
  • The purpose of this study was to clarify the attributes of the concept of clinical performance skills in simulation-based practical training and to organize them in order to establish theoretical foundations for clinical competence. The research method employed was the concept analysis process of Walker and Avant (2011). Papers related to clinical competence published between January 2000 and April 2023 were selected by searching various databases such as PubMed, CINAHL, Ovid-Medline, DBpia, KISS, and others. The attributes of clinical competence were found to be (1) the clinical competence of knowledge, judgment, and skills, (2) Adaptability to Changing Healthcare Environment (3) the ability to perform nursing roles appropriately in response to the demands of nursing subjects. This study is significant as a concept analysis study that recognizes the importance of nursing from a nursing perspective in a situation where research on clinical competence is active in simulation-based training. Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to develop training programs and tools including the attributes of clinical competence in simulation nursing education and to measure the effectiveness of the programs using them. nursing perspective in a situation where research on clinical competence is active. Based on the results of this study, it is necessary to develop training programs and tools including the attributes of clinical competence in simulation nursing education and to measure the effectiveness of the programs using them.

Development of a Value Inquiry Model in Biology Education (생물교육에서의 가치 탐구 모형 개발)

  • Jeong, Eun-Young;Kim, Young-Soo
    • Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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    • v.20 no.4
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    • pp.582-598
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    • 2000
  • There are many bioethical issues in line with the rapid advance of biology. In this situation, it is important for students to make a rational decision on value problem. In this study 'value inquiry in biology education' is defined as 'the process of rational value judgement and wise decision-making in the biology-related value problem' and the model was developed. To develop the model, value inquiry models were reviewed. Value clarification model is helpful for the formation of the personal value as the process of individual value inquiry, but it isn't helpful for clarifying the value conflicts. Value analysis model focuses on the rational solution of value problem through the logical procedure. But it has the limitations that overemphasizing the logical and systematic aspects results in devaluating students' affective aspects. So it is necessary to coordinate psychological and logical aspects of value inquiry. In this regard, the model was developed, including identifying and clarifying value problem, understanding biological knowledge related to conflict situation, considering on the related persons, searching for alternatives, predicting the consequences of each alternative, selecting the alternative, evaluating the alternative, and final value judgement and affirming it. The educational objectives of value inquiry were selected in consideration of the ability to carry out the steps of the developed model. And the selected contents were animal duplication, test-tube baby, genetic engineering, growth hormone injection problem, brain death, organ transplant, animal to be experimented and were organized on the basis of the 6th and the 7th science curriculum. And the suitable instructional models for the value inquiry education were selected: bioethical value clarification decision-making model, group presentation according to the value analysis model, role play and debate, and discussion through web forum. And the interview was considered to be suitable to evaluate the students' value inquiry ability and the rubric was made to evaluate the attainment of the educational objectives for value inquiry.

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A Study on Cognition about 119 Rescue·First Aid Team - Gwangju Area College Student as the Central Figure - (119구조·구급대에 대한 인식도 조사 연구 - 광주지역 보건계열과 비보건계열 대학생을 중심으로 -)

  • Kim, Kab-Sun
    • The Korean Journal of Emergency Medical Services
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    • v.6 no.1
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    • pp.141-152
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    • 2002
  • The purpose of this study is to provide the basic materials for searching the way of improvement to heighten the emergency medical welfare level by one step further. To achieve this purpose, the subjects of this study were selected 452 college students in Gwangju, using a random sampling method. The statistical analysis methods utilized for analyzing the collected data are frequency analysis, $x^2$ test. The conclusions obtained from these analyses are as following ; 1. In question about necessary optimum number of persons for rescue first aid activity, health and non-health major college students responded by 39.2%, 45.3% respectively that rescue team 15 people, first aid team 3 people is most suitable. But there was no significant difference in major department(p<0.05). 2. In question about security of the public health doctor and the emergency medical technician, all health and non-health major college students are recognizing necessity urgently, but there was no significant difference in major department(p<0.05). 3. In question about 119 rescue first aid team member applying for an examination qualification grant to the department of EMT's graduate, all health and non-health major college students were highest by 52.9%, 52.4% respectively in "necessity" item. But there was no significant difference in major department(p<0.05). 4. Because rescue first aid equipment level appears higher than 41.7% in non-health major college student's case by 54.2% in health major college student's case, health major college students are recognizing that equipment level should be supplemented more but there was no significant difference in major department(p<0.05). 5. In question about equipment supplement, all health and non-health major college students appeared highest by 64.8%, 69.3% in accident type different special equipment. But there was no significant difference in major department(p<0.05). 6. In question about rescue ambulance car size, we could know being thinking that health and non-health major college student each 61.2%, 56.5% is small and narrow that large size of the rescue ambulance amount need. But there was no significant difference in major department(p<0.05). 7. In question about patient's state is worsened, because rescue first aid equipment is inferior, health major college student responded sometimes 55.1%, many 29.5%. very many by 11.5%, while non-health major college student responded 65.8%, 23.1%, 4.0% respectively. There was significant difference in major department(p<0.05). 8. In question about emergency patient must utilize for 119 rescue ambulance car, all health and non-health major college students appeared highest by 38.8%, 41.3% in "not so" item. In question about rescue first aid team's first-aid treatment ability improves more, all health and non-health major college students appeared highest by 58.1% and 58.7% respectively in "improve" item. In question about "119 rescue ambulance car must go more rapidly than now", all health and non-health major college students are recognizing that should be quicker by 58.1%, 60.9% respectively. When called to 119 all health and non-health major college students responded highest by 55.5%, 53.3% respectively that we must receive first-aid treatment direction from a doctor. In question about "119 rescue ambulance car must be made the pay system", all health and non-health major college students responded 74%, 80% respectively in "not so" item. There was significant difference in major department(p<0.05). In conclusions, In oder to provide superior rescue first aid service to people, a public health doctor should be placed in the situation room inside the fire station so that the doctor could instruct the proper emergency treatment suitable for each situation to the rescue first aid team. Also, national education about a first-aid treatment that do to all people is necessarily necessary in emergency delivery system and this should be spread extensively through school education and broadcasting medium and education should be gone side by side, and see that will can save emergency patients' life which is more when these education consists continuously fixed period for public institution of policeman, fire officer etc. specially. And for reinforcement of patient transfer system, public organization must procure special ambulance car so that emergency patient receive first aid treatment while transfer.

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A Study on the Functional Feeding Groups and Community Stability of Benthic Macroinvertebrate in Forest Fire Area (산불지의 저서성대형무척추동물 섭식기능군 및 군집안정성에 관한 연구)

  • Sim, Kwang Sub;Kim, Myoung Eun;Lim, Joo Hoon;Seo, Eul Won;Lee, Jong Eun
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.100 no.1
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    • pp.112-117
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    • 2011
  • This study was conducted for searching the functional feeding groups, and community stability of the macroinvertebrate on forest fire area of Uljin-gun. The samples were collected from 2 sites of control area and 2 sites of experimental area during 2007 to 2009. The identified species were 89 belonged to 47 families, 16 order, 6 class, and 4 phylum in control area. And 84 belonged to 43 families, 16 order, 6 class, and 4 phylum were identified in experimental area. As a result of changes in species and individuals of E.P.T. taxa investigated in experimental area by year, Ephemeroptera was 21 species, $2,434.6inds./m^2$, Plecoptera was 3 species, $199.8inds./m^2$, and Trichoptera 14 species, $540.2inds./m^2$ in 2007. And in 2009, Ephemeroptera was 9 species, $296inds./m^2$, Trichoptera was 4 species, $44.4inds./m^2$, and Plecoptera was none, showing that species and individuals belonging to E.P.T. taxa decrease rapidly every year. Community analysis by year, in 2008 when the water system started to be influenced by the fire directly, it showed a trend that H' and RI decreased in the experimental area. Functional feeding group by year, it showed a trend that species and individuals of GC type which is a functional group picking up and eating FPOM (fine particulate organic matter) from deposits in the bottom of water or benthic areas and performs an important function of material circulation in ecosystem decrease every year. Community stability by year, an environment of water system in forest fire area started to be somewhat destroyed, from 2008, it is shown that both species in I area which have great ability of resistance and recovery and species in III area which live in relatively stable water system decreased a little.

Methods for Integration of Documents using Hierarchical Structure based on the Formal Concept Analysis (FCA 기반 계층적 구조를 이용한 문서 통합 기법)

  • Kim, Tae-Hwan;Jeon, Ho-Cheol;Choi, Joong-Min
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.17 no.3
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    • pp.63-77
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    • 2011
  • The World Wide Web is a very large distributed digital information space. From its origins in 1991, the web has grown to encompass diverse information resources as personal home pasges, online digital libraries and virtual museums. Some estimates suggest that the web currently includes over 500 billion pages in the deep web. The ability to search and retrieve information from the web efficiently and effectively is an enabling technology for realizing its full potential. With powerful workstations and parallel processing technology, efficiency is not a bottleneck. In fact, some existing search tools sift through gigabyte.syze precompiled web indexes in a fraction of a second. But retrieval effectiveness is a different matter. Current search tools retrieve too many documents, of which only a small fraction are relevant to the user query. Furthermore, the most relevant documents do not nessarily appear at the top of the query output order. Also, current search tools can not retrieve the documents related with retrieved document from gigantic amount of documents. The most important problem for lots of current searching systems is to increase the quality of search. It means to provide related documents or decrease the number of unrelated documents as low as possible in the results of search. For this problem, CiteSeer proposed the ACI (Autonomous Citation Indexing) of the articles on the World Wide Web. A "citation index" indexes the links between articles that researchers make when they cite other articles. Citation indexes are very useful for a number of purposes, including literature search and analysis of the academic literature. For details of this work, references contained in academic articles are used to give credit to previous work in the literature and provide a link between the "citing" and "cited" articles. A citation index indexes the citations that an article makes, linking the articleswith the cited works. Citation indexes were originally designed mainly for information retrieval. The citation links allow navigating the literature in unique ways. Papers can be located independent of language, and words in thetitle, keywords or document. A citation index allows navigation backward in time (the list of cited articles) and forwardin time (which subsequent articles cite the current article?) But CiteSeer can not indexes the links between articles that researchers doesn't make. Because it indexes the links between articles that only researchers make when they cite other articles. Also, CiteSeer is not easy to scalability. Because CiteSeer can not indexes the links between articles that researchers doesn't make. All these problems make us orient for designing more effective search system. This paper shows a method that extracts subject and predicate per each sentence in documents. A document will be changed into the tabular form that extracted predicate checked value of possible subject and object. We make a hierarchical graph of a document using the table and then integrate graphs of documents. The graph of entire documents calculates the area of document as compared with integrated documents. We mark relation among the documents as compared with the area of documents. Also it proposes a method for structural integration of documents that retrieves documents from the graph. It makes that the user can find information easier. We compared the performance of the proposed approaches with lucene search engine using the formulas for ranking. As a result, the F.measure is about 60% and it is better as about 15%.

Construction and Application of Intelligent Decision Support System through Defense Ontology - Application example of Air Force Logistics Situation Management System (국방 온톨로지를 통한 지능형 의사결정지원시스템 구축 및 활용 - 공군 군수상황관리체계 적용 사례)

  • Jo, Wongi;Kim, Hak-Jin
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.25 no.2
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    • pp.77-97
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    • 2019
  • The large amount of data that emerges from the initial connection environment of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a major factor that distinguishes the Fourth Industrial Revolution from the existing production environment. This environment has two-sided features that allow it to produce data while using it. And the data produced so produces another value. Due to the massive scale of data, future information systems need to process more data in terms of quantities than existing information systems. In addition, in terms of quality, only a large amount of data, Ability is required. In a small-scale information system, it is possible for a person to accurately understand the system and obtain the necessary information, but in a variety of complex systems where it is difficult to understand the system accurately, it becomes increasingly difficult to acquire the desired information. In other words, more accurate processing of large amounts of data has become a basic condition for future information systems. This problem related to the efficient performance of the information system can be solved by building a semantic web which enables various information processing by expressing the collected data as an ontology that can be understood by not only people but also computers. For example, as in most other organizations, IT has been introduced in the military, and most of the work has been done through information systems. Currently, most of the work is done through information systems. As existing systems contain increasingly large amounts of data, efforts are needed to make the system easier to use through its data utilization. An ontology-based system has a large data semantic network through connection with other systems, and has a wide range of databases that can be utilized, and has the advantage of searching more precisely and quickly through relationships between predefined concepts. In this paper, we propose a defense ontology as a method for effective data management and decision support. In order to judge the applicability and effectiveness of the actual system, we reconstructed the existing air force munitions situation management system as an ontology based system. It is a system constructed to strengthen management and control of logistics situation of commanders and practitioners by providing real - time information on maintenance and distribution situation as it becomes difficult to use complicated logistics information system with large amount of data. Although it is a method to take pre-specified necessary information from the existing logistics system and display it as a web page, it is also difficult to confirm this system except for a few specified items in advance, and it is also time-consuming to extend the additional function if necessary And it is a system composed of category type without search function. Therefore, it has a disadvantage that it can be easily utilized only when the system is well known as in the existing system. The ontology-based logistics situation management system is designed to provide the intuitive visualization of the complex information of the existing logistics information system through the ontology. In order to construct the logistics situation management system through the ontology, And the useful functions such as performance - based logistics support contract management and component dictionary are further identified and included in the ontology. In order to confirm whether the constructed ontology can be used for decision support, it is necessary to implement a meaningful analysis function such as calculation of the utilization rate of the aircraft, inquiry about performance-based military contract. Especially, in contrast to building ontology database in ontology study in the past, in this study, time series data which change value according to time such as the state of aircraft by date are constructed by ontology, and through the constructed ontology, It is confirmed that it is possible to calculate the utilization rate based on various criteria as well as the computable utilization rate. In addition, the data related to performance-based logistics contracts introduced as a new maintenance method of aircraft and other munitions can be inquired into various contents, and it is easy to calculate performance indexes used in performance-based logistics contract through reasoning and functions. Of course, we propose a new performance index that complements the limitations of the currently applied performance indicators, and calculate it through the ontology, confirming the possibility of using the constructed ontology. Finally, it is possible to calculate the failure rate or reliability of each component, including MTBF data of the selected fault-tolerant item based on the actual part consumption performance. The reliability of the mission and the reliability of the system are calculated. In order to confirm the usability of the constructed ontology-based logistics situation management system, the proposed system through the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which is a representative model for measuring the acceptability of the technology, is more useful and convenient than the existing system.

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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