• Title/Summary/Keyword: Variable frequency

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Edge to Edge Model and Delay Performance Evaluation for Autonomous Driving (자율 주행을 위한 Edge to Edge 모델 및 지연 성능 평가)

  • Cho, Moon Ki;Bae, Kyoung Yul
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.191-207
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    • 2021
  • Up to this day, mobile communications have evolved rapidly over the decades, mainly focusing on speed-up to meet the growing data demands of 2G to 5G. And with the start of the 5G era, efforts are being made to provide such various services to customers, as IoT, V2X, robots, artificial intelligence, augmented virtual reality, and smart cities, which are expected to change the environment of our lives and industries as a whole. In a bid to provide those services, on top of high speed data, reduced latency and reliability are critical for real-time services. Thus, 5G has paved the way for service delivery through maximum speed of 20Gbps, a delay of 1ms, and a connecting device of 106/㎢ In particular, in intelligent traffic control systems and services using various vehicle-based Vehicle to X (V2X), such as traffic control, in addition to high-speed data speed, reduction of delay and reliability for real-time services are very important. 5G communication uses high frequencies of 3.5Ghz and 28Ghz. These high-frequency waves can go with high-speed thanks to their straightness while their short wavelength and small diffraction angle limit their reach to distance and prevent them from penetrating walls, causing restrictions on their use indoors. Therefore, under existing networks it's difficult to overcome these constraints. The underlying centralized SDN also has a limited capability in offering delay-sensitive services because communication with many nodes creates overload in its processing. Basically, SDN, which means a structure that separates signals from the control plane from packets in the data plane, requires control of the delay-related tree structure available in the event of an emergency during autonomous driving. In these scenarios, the network architecture that handles in-vehicle information is a major variable of delay. Since SDNs in general centralized structures are difficult to meet the desired delay level, studies on the optimal size of SDNs for information processing should be conducted. Thus, SDNs need to be separated on a certain scale and construct a new type of network, which can efficiently respond to dynamically changing traffic and provide high-quality, flexible services. Moreover, the structure of these networks is closely related to ultra-low latency, high confidence, and hyper-connectivity and should be based on a new form of split SDN rather than an existing centralized SDN structure, even in the case of the worst condition. And in these SDN structural networks, where automobiles pass through small 5G cells very quickly, the information change cycle, round trip delay (RTD), and the data processing time of SDN are highly correlated with the delay. Of these, RDT is not a significant factor because it has sufficient speed and less than 1 ms of delay, but the information change cycle and data processing time of SDN are factors that greatly affect the delay. Especially, in an emergency of self-driving environment linked to an ITS(Intelligent Traffic System) that requires low latency and high reliability, information should be transmitted and processed very quickly. That is a case in point where delay plays a very sensitive role. In this paper, we study the SDN architecture in emergencies during autonomous driving and conduct analysis through simulation of the correlation with the cell layer in which the vehicle should request relevant information according to the information flow. For simulation: As the Data Rate of 5G is high enough, we can assume the information for neighbor vehicle support to the car without errors. Furthermore, we assumed 5G small cells within 50 ~ 250 m in cell radius, and the maximum speed of the vehicle was considered as a 30km ~ 200 km/hour in order to examine the network architecture to minimize the delay.

The Effect of Price Promotional Information about Brand on Consumer's Quality Perception: Conditioning on Pretrial Brand (품패개격촉소신식대소비자질량인지적영향(品牌价格促销信息对消费者质量认知的影响))

  • Lee, Min-Hoon;Lim, Hang-Seop
    • Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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    • v.19 no.3
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    • pp.17-27
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    • 2009
  • Price promotion typically reduces the price for a given quantity or increases the quantity available at the same price, thereby enhancing value and creating an economic incentive to purchase. It often is used to encourage product or service trial among nonusers of products or services. Thus, it is important to understand the effects of price promotions on quality perception made by consumer who do not have prior experience with the promoted brand. However, if consumers associate a price promotion itself with inferior brand quality, the promotion may not achieve the sales increase the economic incentives otherwise might have produced. More specifically, low qualitative perception through price promotion will undercut the economic and psychological incentives and reduce the likelihood of purchase. Thus, it is important for marketers to understand how price promotional informations about a brand have impact on consumer's unfavorable quality perception of the brand. Previous literatures on the effects of price promotions on quality perception reveal inconsistent explanations. Some focused on the unfavorable effect of price promotion on consumer's perception. But others showed that price promotions didn't raise unfavorable perception on the brand. Prior researches found these inconsistent results related to the timing of the price promotion's exposure and quality evaluation relative to trial. And, whether the consumer has been experienced with the product promotions in the past or not may moderate the effects. A few studies considered differences among product categories as fundamental factors. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of price promotional informations on consumer's unfavorable quality perception under the different conditions. The author controlled the timing of the promotional exposure and varied past promotional patterns and information presenting patterns. Unlike previous researches, the author examined the effects of price promotions setting limit to pretrial situation by controlling potentially moderating effects of prior personal experience with the brand. This manipulations enable to resolve possible controversies in relation to this issue. And this manipulation is meaningful for the work sector. Price promotion is not only used to target existing consumers but also to encourage product or service trial among nonusers of products or services. Thus, it is important for marketers to understand how price promotional informations about a brand have impact on consumer's unfavorable quality perception of the brand. If consumers associate a price promotion itself with inferior quality about unused brand, the promotion may not achieve the sales increase the economic incentives otherwise might have produced. In addition, if the price promotion ends, the consumer that have purchased that certain brand will likely to display sharply decreased repurchasing behavior. Through a literature review, hypothesis 1 was set as follows to investigate the adjustive effect of past price promotion on quality perception made by consumers; The influence that price promotion of unused brand have on quality perception made by consumers will be adjusted by past price promotion activity of the brand. In other words, a price promotion of an unused brand that have not done a price promotion in the past will have a unfavorable effect on quality perception made by consumer. Hypothesis 2-1 was set as follows : When an unused brand undertakes price promotion for the first time, the information presenting pattern of price promotion will have an effect on the consumer's attribution for the cause of the price promotion. Hypothesis 2-2 was set as follows : The more consumer dispositionally attribute the cause of price promotion, the more unfavorable the quality perception made by consumer will be. Through test 1, the subjects were given a brief explanation of the product and the brand before they were provided with a $2{\times}2$ factorial design that has 4 patterns of price promotion (presence or absence of past price promotion * presence or absence of current price promotion) and the explanation describing the price promotion pattern of each cell. Then the perceived quality of imaginary brand WAVEX was evaluated in the scale of 7. The reason tennis racket was chosen is because the selected product group must have had almost no past price promotions to eliminate the influence of average frequency of promotion on the value of price promotional information as Raghubir and Corfman (1999) pointed out. Test 2 was also carried out on students of the same management faculty of test 1 with tennis racket as the product group. As with test 1, subjects with average familiarity for the product group and low familiarity for the brand was selected. Each subjects were assigned to one of the two cells representing two different information presenting patterns of price promotion of WAVEX (case where the reason behind price promotion was provided/case where the reason behind price promotion was not provided). Subjects looked at each promotional information before evaluating the perceived quality of the brand WAVEX in the scale of 7. The effect of price promotion for unfamiliar pretrial brand on consumer's perceived quality was proved to be moderated with the presence or absence of past price promotion. The consistency with past promotional behavior is important variable that makes unfavorable effect on brand evaluations get worse. If the price promotion for the brand has never been carried out before, price promotion activity may have more unfavorable effects on consumer's quality perception. Second, when the price promotion of unfamiliar pretrial brand was executed for the first time, presenting method of informations has impact on consumer's attribution for the cause of firm's promotion. And the unfavorable effect of quality perception is higher when the consumer does dispositional attribution comparing with situational attribution. Unlike the previous studies where the main focus was the absence or presence of favorable or unfavorable motivation from situational/dispositional attribution, the focus of this study was exaus ing the fact that a situational attribution can be inferred even if the consumer employs a dispositional attribution on the price promotional behavior, if the company provides a persuasive reason. Such approach, in academic perspectih sis a large significance in that it explained the anchoring and adjng ch approcedures by applying it to a non-mathematical problem unlike the previous studies where it wis ionaly explained by applying it to a mathematical problem. In other wordn, there is a highrspedency tmatispositionally attribute other's behaviors according to the fuedach aal attribution errors and when this is applied to the situation of price promotions, we can infer that consumers are likely tmatispositionally attribute the company's price promotion behaviors. Ha ever, even ueder these circumstances, the company can adjng the consumer's anchoring tmareduce the po wibiliute thdispositional attribution. Furthermore, unlike majority of previous researches on short/long-term effects of price promotion that only considered the effect of price promotions on consumer's purchasing behaviors, this research measured the effect on perceived quality, one of man elements that affects the purchasing behavior of consumers. These results carry useful implications for the work sector. A guideline of effectively providing promotional informations for a new brand can be suggested through the outcomes of this research. If the brand is to avoid false implications such as inferior quality while implementing a price promotion strategy, it must provide a clear and acceptable reasons behind the promotion. Especially it is more important for the company with no past price promotion to provide a clear reason. An inconsistent behavior can be the cause of consumer's distrust and anxiety. This is also one of the most important factor of risk of endless price wars. Price promotions without prior notice can buy doubt from consumers not market share.

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The Influence of Organizational Commitment, Job Commitment and Job Satisfaction on Professionalism Perceived by Radiotechnologists Working in the Department of Radiation Oncology (방사선종양학과에 근무하는 방사선사의 조직몰입, 직무몰입, 직무만족이 전문 직업성에 미치는 영향)

  • Gim, Yang-Soo;Lee, Sun-Young;Lee, Joon-Seong;Gwak, Geun-Tak;Pak, Ju-Gyeong;Lee, Seung-Hoon;Hwang, Ho-In;Cha, Seok-Yong
    • The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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    • v.24 no.2
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    • pp.67-75
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    • 2012
  • Purpose: The study is to check the specialty of radiotherapists working in the department of radiation oncology and find job satisfaction, organizational commitment and job commitment having an effect on professional parts. After making analysis of the mutual relation, it is to provide radiotechnologists with making progress in the future. Materials and Methods: From March 2 to March 30, we had carried out a survey with email. It is possible to have 272 questionnaires answered in the survey. We make use of SPSS 13.0 for Windows to analyze the data collected for study. Frequency and a percentage are meant to show general characteristics, and t-test and ANOVA to do the difference between general properties and professionalism. Pearson's correlation coefficient also is meant to do the correlation of professionalism, organizational job commitment and job satisfaction, and multiple regression analysis to do the factor for a relevant variable to affect professionalism. Results: There are subdivisions in the professionalism informing us of the self-regulation $17.74{\pm}2.32/3.55{\pm}.46$, a sense of calling $17.58{\pm}2.63/3.52{\pm}.53$, reference of the professional $17.14{\pm}2.39/3.43{\pm}.48$, service to the public $15.97{\pm}2.48/3.19{\pm}50$, and autonomy $15.68{\pm}2.28/3.14{\pm}46$. Grand mean turns out to be $83.89{\pm}7.63$(Summation of items)/$3.37{\pm}0.49$ (Numbers of items). When it comes to a statistical relation between general characteristics and professionalism, the statistics have it that these come within age (P<.001), period of employment (P<.001), education status (P<.05), a monthly income (P<.001), radiotherapists who get a special license (P<.001), the position (P<.001), and an opportunity for developing (P<.001). As a result of organizational commitment, job commitment, and job satisfaction, grand mean in organizational commitment proves to be $80.10{\pm}8.15/3.34{\pm}.34$. There are subvisions showing affective commitment $28.64{\pm}4.61$/3.58, continuance commitment $27.54{\pm}4.22/3.44{\pm}.53$, and normative commitment $23.95{\pm}2.94/2.99{\pm}.37$ in order of precedence. The average grade in job commitment is $32.47{\pm}5.77/3.30{\pm}.60$ and that in job satisfaction is $63.39{\pm}10.16/3.17{\pm}.51$, respectively. We find the positive relationship between professionalism and organizational commitment (r=.522, P<.05), between professionalism and job commitment (r=.444, P<.05), and between professionalism and job satisfaction (r=.507, P<.05). And we also get the positive relationship between organizational commitment and job commitment (r=.549, P<.05), between organizational commitment and job satisfaction (r=.433, P<.05), and between job commitment and job satisfaction (r=.462, P<.05). To catch the factors influencing the professionalism of radiotherapists, we used multiple regression analysis. According to the final model, it appears affective commitment (B=.755, P<.05), normative commitment (B=.305, P<.05), job satisfaction (B=.092, P<.05), an opportunity for developing (B=-1.505, P<.05), and the position (B=-1.155, P<.05) in order of precedence. It seems that explaining influece on $R^2$ is 0.504. Conclusion: The results of the factors that influence professionalism working as radiotherapists in the department of radiation oncology have it that the more affective commitment, normative commitment, and job satisfaction we feel, the more professionalism we recognize. We think that the focus of professionalism is increased if getting the chances for radiotherapists to have little to do with developing opportunities given.

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A Research in the Characteristic of Arthritis Patienth (관절염환자(關節炎患者)의 특성(特性)에 대한 조사(調査) 연구(硏究))

  • Kang Jeam-Dug;Nam Chul-Hyun;Kim Gi-Yeol
    • Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.149-165
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    • 1997
  • In order that, investigating the feature of patients suffering arthritis, analysing its contents, and grasping a Primary factor affecting it, I might offerbasic datas which could help to plan and perform healthy affairs to thake precautions beforehand, I have investigated, analysed, and studied a total of 320 patients suffering arthritis, who have received physiotherapy in hospital located in Teaegu area for five months, from November 1 1995 to March 30 1996, of which summary and conclusion is this. 1. The general feature of patients in investigative objects In the distribution of the distinction of sex, men accounted for 26.9% and women, for 73.1%, and, in the fistribution of age, 60-year-old or more, most for 27.2% and from 20 to 29 years old, least for 14.0%. In the distinction of a vocation, housewives most accounted for 34.7% and students(jobless men), least for 19.3%. In the distinction of a matrimonial state, married persons most accounted for 76.7% and people living alone(divorce, separation by death, separation), least for 11.4%. In the distinction of an economic state, the middle classes most accounted for 73.5% and the upper classes, least for 2.9%. In the distinction of their academic careers, graduates of a primary school most accounted for 26.9% and graduates of university, for 14.1%, of which patients, having the ability to decode the national language, reached to 11.3%. In the distinction of the house form, people living in independent houses most accounted for 76.4% and residents in apartment(having an elevator), least for 9.4%. 2. In the distribution of the recurring state in the distinction of the feature, the recurring group was more than the group of patients falling that ill at first as 62.2% and in the distinction of the feature of the recurring group, the recurring group turned high in case of men being from 50s to 60s years old or more, people living alone (divorce, separation by death, separation), students (joblessmen), people working in farming, stockbeeding, forestry, fisheries, a simple labour, graduates of a primary school I having the ability to decode the national language, the upper classes, people part two years since they begined to suffer arthritis, people who had members having ever experienced arthritis among families. 3. In the distribution of arthritis on the distinction of bodily pars, a knee articulation most accounted for 50.2% and the articulation of fingers, for 8.8%, wile the simultaneous, several parts (multiple) accounted for 35.1%. In the distinction of the feature, arthritis of a knee turned high in case of men being from 20s to 30s years old, unmarried persons, people having academic careers of university, the middle classes, residents in apartment (having stairs). In the dictnction of a feature the case of several parts (multiple) turned high in case of women being from 50s to 60s years old or more, people living alone (divorce, separation by death, separation), people having the ability to decode th. national language, the graduates of a primary school, the upper classes, residents in apartment (having elevator). 4. In the distribution of arthritis on e distinction of a contracting term, two years or more most accounted for 51.6% and the case of contacting from one year to two years, for 15.3%. Analysing the distinction of the feature, the case of two years or more turned high in case of women being from 50s to 60s years old or more, people living alone (divorce separation by death, separation), the upper classes, people having the ability to decode the national language, residents in apartment (having elevator). 5. In the distribution of an treatment institution before patients came to help, their not curing most accounted for 39.1%, general, orthopedic, neurological surgery (physical therapy), for. 20.0%, and th. therapy of Chinese medicine (acupuncture, moxacautery, Chinese medicine), for 17.5%, and a pharmacy (medical therapy), for 13.4%. The case of patients not curing, in the distinction of a feature, turned high in case of men 20s years old, unmarried, the lower classes, people having academic careers of university, residents in apartment (having elevator). 6. In e distribution of the extent of satisfaction with treatment, common most accounted for 54.4% and some satisfaction, for 32.8%. The case of common, in the distinction of a feature, turned high, in case of men living alone from 50s to 60s years old (divorce, separation by death, separation), married persons, the upper classes, people having academic careers of university, residents in independent house, residents in apartment (having elevator), 7. In the distribution of the degree of knowledge of the cause of arthritis, patients knowing that the cause is to use very much a articulation in normal times most accounts for 60.1%, and patients knowing the state of short nutrition as a cause, for 2.5%. The case of patients knowing that the cause is to use very much in normal times, in the distinction of a feature, turned high in·case of ment being 20s and 60s years old or more, unmarried persons, e lower classes, people having the ability to decode. the national language, people having academic careers of university, residents in apartment (having stairs), 8. In the distribution of the state of physical exercise before arthritis contracted, patients exercising very much on the whole most accpimend for 40.3%, and patients not exercising, for 34.7%. The case of patients exercising very much on the whole, in the distinction of the feature, turned high in case of men being from 50s to 60s years old or more, people living alone(divorce, separation by death, separation), the lower classes, people having the ability to decode the national language, graduates of a primary school, residents in apartment (having elevator). 9. In the taste of patients suffering from arthritis, while the group of patients falling that ill at first and the recurring group didn't smoke cigarets, during alcohol and coffee on the whole, and the group of patients falling once again that ill drank a cup of distilled linquor and three cup of coffee or more on the whole per one day, and the group of patients falling that ill at first liked sort of vegetables and the recurring group liked very much sons of vegetables and fresh and meat in their loving food normal times. 10. Analysing the distribution on the dining table used by patients and the structure of a powder room, at first, in the structure of a powder room, the group of patients filling that ill have a toilet stool using as their sits, and a Bush toilet on the whole, and the recurring group, a toilet stool using as their sits and conventional type, and in the structure of a dinning table, the group of patients falling that ill at first and the recurring group turned high, each as 66.9% and 6.3%, who have a dining table carring here and there. 11. In the distribution of patients of arthritis in relation to stress, the case that they feeled severly symptoms of arthritis when thay got stress, turned high, each, as 78.6% in the recurring poop, and the case not knowing, as 61.5% in the first group. In the extent of stress normal times, the case that they got much stress on the whole turned high, each, as 72.4% in e recurring group, and the care that got less stress on the whole, as 60.0%. 12. In the distribution on the distinction of symptoms and impedimental extent, the recurring group turned high in each variable. Analysing the feature of the recurring group, in the distinction of symptoms, the case that they fooled much that the node of an articulation is stiff, turned high, as 71.6, and in the distinction of treatment before. patients came to helpk, the theraphy of Chinese medicine (physical theraphy), as 84.4%, the theraphy of Chinese medicine (acupuncture, moxacautery, Chinese medicine), as 73.2%, and in the distinction of the satisfing extent on treatment, the case of comman, as 72.3%, and in the cause of arthritis, the case not recruiting their health after a birth, as 68.5%, and the case not recovering wholely an articulation having got hurt, as 62.8%, and in the state of physical exercise before they begined suffering from arthritis, the case exercising very much on the whole, (as 74.2%), and in the extent of subjective impediment, the case of not being able to act almost, as 66.7%, the case of acting but feeling some hard, as 66.3%. 13. The correlation in variables in relation to arthritis Analysing realted variables, the recurring frequency showed correlation with such as the extent that patients got stress normal times, and the exercising state before suffering arthritis, and showed contra-correlation with academic careers, the wights, coffee. The cigaret, e loving food of taste, showed corralation with the weight, stature, alcohole as the loving food of taste. On the basis of this result medical members of heal, who are related to the regular education, public education or development of this program, should be concerned to prevent orthris.

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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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