An Overview of Surgical Treatment of Thymic Epithelial Tumors in Korea: A Retrospective Multicenter Analysis
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- Journal of Chest Surgery
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- v.55 no.2
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- pp.126-142
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- 2022
Background: Thymic epithelial tumors (TETs) are rare, and information regarding their surgical outcomes and prognostic factors has rapidly changed in the past few decades. We analyzed surgical treatment practices for TETs and outcomes in terms of overall survival (OS) and freedom from recurrence (FFR) during a 13-year period in Korea. Methods: In total, 1,298 patients with surgically resected TETs between 2000 and 2013 were enrolled retrospectively. OS and FFR were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method and evaluated with the log-rank test. Prognostic factors for OS and FFR were analyzed with multivariable Cox regression. Results: A total of 1,098 patients were diagnosed with thymoma, and 200 patients were diagnosed with thymic carcinoma. Over the study period, the total number of patients with surgically treated TETs and the proportion of patients who underwent minimally invasive thymic surgery (MITS) increased annually. The 5-year and 10-year survival rates of surgically treated TETs were 91.0% and 82.1%, respectively. The 5-year and 10-year recurrence rates were 86.3% and 80.0%, respectively. The outcomes of surgically treated TETs improved over time. Multivariable Cox hazards analysis for OS, age, tumor size, and Masaoka-Koga stage were independent predictors of prognosis. The World Health Organization classification and tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) staging were also related to the prognosis of TETs. Conclusion: Surgical treatment of TETs achieved a good prognosis with a recent increase in MITS. The M-K stage was the most important prognostic factor for OS and FFR. The new TNM stage could also be an effective predictor of the outcomes of TETs.
This study aims to distinguish what can be used in consideration of the national situation with Korea for Chinese Scenic and Historic Interest Areas, and the results are as follows; First, the Chinese Scenic and Historic Interest Areas expanded to the existing scenic cruise culture, travel, and tourism culture in the process of the influx of Western culture in the modern and contemporary era, and became popular as a travel destination. Accordingly, the Chinese government developed the tourism industry around the scenic sites, and thanks to the development of transportation and communication, the Scenic and Historic Interest Areas has become an important national heritage. This influenced the establishment of the system related to Scenic and Historic Interest Areas, and today, it is operated around the Scenic and Historic Interest Areas ordinance. Second, the designation of the Scenic and Historic Interest Areas is divided into the size of the site according to the area, and the process of selecting the Scenic and Historic Interest Areas classification, rating evaluation, and comprehensive value evaluation according to evaluation indicators and rating standards is carried out. Accordingly, according to the results of the classification, it is subdivided from the national level to the Scenic and Historic Interest Areas at the local level. Third, the central government is in charge of managing and supervising Scenic and Historic Interest Areas across the country, and the local government's construction department is in charge of supervising Scenic and Historic Interest Areas in the region. The management organization of Scenic and Historic Interest Areas established by local governments above the county level has a system that actually protects, utilizes, and manages Scenic and Historic Interest Areas. In addition, 14 detailed indicators are used to monitor Scenic and Historic Interest Areas. Based on these results, considering the application of the domestic scenic site policy, the method of developing the policy that has established the system from the perspective of the utilization of the people is worth considering. On the other hand, the evaluation of the designation and management system through the setting of various indicators has limitations in that it is difficult to secure objectivity in impressing or evaluating the landscape. Therefore, rather than blindly introducing quantified evaluation, it seems that guidance and promotion on how to expand consensus on scenic values and enjoy heritage should be prioritized.
The purpose of this research is to construct research framework for international franchising based on existing literature and to identify research components in the framework. Franchise can be defined as management styles that allow franchisee use various management assets of franchisor in order to make or sell product or service. It can be divided into product distribution franchise that is designed to sell products and business format franchise that is designed for running it as business whatever its form is. International franchising can be defined as a way of internationalization of franchisor to foreign country by providing its business format or package to franchisee of host country. International franchising is growing fast for last four decades but academic research on this is quite limited. Especially in Korea, research about international franchising is carried out on by case study format with single case or empirical study format with survey based on domestic franchise theory. Therefore, this paper tries to review existing literature on international franchising research, providing research framework, and then stimulating new research on this field. International franchising research components include motives and environmental factors for decision of expanding to international franchising, entrance modes and development plan for international franchising, contracts and management strategy of international franchising, and various performance measures from different perspectives. First, motives of international franchising are fee collection from franchisee. Also it provides easier way to expanding to foreign country. The other motives including increase total sales volume, occupying better strategic position, getting quality resources, and improving efficiency. Environmental factors that facilitating international franchising encompasses economic condition, trend, and legal or political factors in host and/or home countries. In addition, control power and risk management capability of franchisor plays critical role in successful franchising contract. Final decision to enter foreign country via franchising is determined by numerous factors like history, size, growth, competitiveness, management system, bonding capability, industry characteristics of franchisor. After deciding to enter into foreign country, franchisor needs to set entrance modes of international franchising. Within contractual mode, there are master franchising and area developing franchising, licensing, direct franchising, and joint venture. Theories about entrance mode selection contain concepts of efficiency, knowledge-based approach, competence-based approach, agent theory, and governance cost. The next step after entrance decision is operation strategy. Operation strategy starts with selecting a target city and a target country for franchising. In order to finding, screening targets, franchisor needs to collect information about candidates. Critical information includes brand patent, commercial laws, regulations, market conditions, country risk, and industry analysis. After selecting a target city in target country, franchisor needs to select franchisee, in other word, partner. The first important criteria for selecting partners are financial credibility and capability, possession of real estate. And cultural similarity and knowledge about franchisor and/or home country are also recognized as critical criteria. The most important element in operating strategy is legal document between franchisor and franchisee with home and host countries. Terms and conditions in legal documents give objective information about characteristics of franchising agreement for academic research. Legal documents have definitions of terminology, territory and exclusivity, agreement of term, initial fee, continuing fees, clearing currency, and rights about sub-franchising. Also, legal documents could have terms about softer elements like training program and operation manual. And harder elements like law competent court and terms of expiration. Next element in operating strategy is about product and service. Especially for business format franchising, product/service deliverable, benefit communicators, system identifiers (architectural features), and format facilitators are listed for product/service strategic elements. Another important decision on product/service is standardization vs. customization. The rationale behind standardization is cost reduction, efficiency, consistency, image congruence, brand awareness, and competitiveness on price. Also standardization enables large scale R&D and innovative change in management style. Another element in operating strategy is control management. The simple way to control franchise contract is relying on legal terms, contractual control system. There are other control systems, administrative control system and ethical control system. Contractual control system is a coercive source of power, but franchisor usually doesn't want to use legal power since it doesn't help to build up positive relationship. Instead, self-regulation is widely used. Administrative control system uses control mechanism from ordinary work relationship. Its main component is supporting activities to franchisee and communication method. For example, franchisor provides advertising, training, manual, and delivery, then franchisee follows franchisor's direction. Another component is building franchisor's brand power. The last research element is performance factor of international franchising. Performance elements can be divided into franchisor's performance and franchisee's performance. The conceptual performance measures of franchisor are simple but not easy to obtain objectively. They are profit, sale, cost, experience, and brand power. The performance measures of franchisee are mostly about benefits of host country. They contain small business development, promotion of employment, introduction of new business model, and level up technology status. There are indirect benefits, like increase of tax, refinement of corporate citizenship, regional economic clustering, and improvement of international balance. In addition to those, host country gets socio-cultural change other than economic effects. It includes demographic change, social trend, customer value change, social communication, and social globalization. Sometimes it is called as westernization or McDonaldization of society. In addition, the paper reviews on theories that have been frequently applied to international franchising research, such as agent theory, resource-based view, transaction cost theory, organizational learning theory, and international expansion theories. Resource based theory is used in strategic decision based on resources, like decision about entrance and cooperation depending on resources of franchisee and franchisor. Transaction cost theory can be applied in determination of mutual trust or satisfaction of franchising players. Agent theory tries to explain strategic decision for reducing problem caused by utilizing agent, for example research on control system in franchising agreements. Organizational Learning theory is relatively new in franchising research. It assumes organization tries to maximize performance and learning of organization. In addition, Internalization theory advocates strategic decision of direct investment for removing inefficiency of market transaction and is applied in research on terms of contract. And oligopolistic competition theory is used to explain various entry modes for international expansion. Competency theory support strategic decision of utilizing key competitive advantage. Furthermore, research methodologies including qualitative and quantitative methodologies are suggested for more rigorous international franchising research. Quantitative research needs more real data other than survey data which is usually respondent's judgment. In order to verify theory more rigorously, research based on real data is essential. However, real quantitative data is quite hard to get. The qualitative research other than single case study is also highly recommended. Since international franchising has limited number of applications, scientific research based on grounded theory and ethnography study can be used. Scientific case study is differentiated with single case study on its data collection method and analysis method. The key concept is triangulation in measurement, logical coding and comparison. Finally, it provides overall research direction for international franchising after summarizing research trend in Korea. International franchising research in Korea has two different types, one is for studying Korean franchisor going overseas and the other is for Korean franchisee of foreign franchisor. Among research on Korean franchisor, two common patterns are observed. First of all, they usually deal with success story of one franchisor. The other common pattern is that they focus on same industry and country. Therefore, international franchise research needs to extend their focus to broader subjects with scientific research methodology as well as development of new theory.
Fuzzy logic based Control Theory has gained much interest in the industrial world, thanks to its ability to formalize and solve in a very natural way many problems that are very difficult to quantify at an analytical level. This paper shows a solution for treating membership function inside hardware circuits. The proposed hardware structure optimizes the memoried size by using particular form of the vectorial representation. The process of memorizing fuzzy sets, i.e. their membership function, has always been one of the more problematic issues for the hardware implementation, due to the quite large memory space that is needed. To simplify such an implementation, it is commonly [1,2,8,9,10,11] used to limit the membership functions either to those having triangular or trapezoidal shape, or pre-definite shape. These kinds of functions are able to cover a large spectrum of applications with a limited usage of memory, since they can be memorized by specifying very few parameters ( ight, base, critical points, etc.). This however results in a loss of computational power due to computation on the medium points. A solution to this problem is obtained by discretizing the universe of discourse U, i.e. by fixing a finite number of points and memorizing the value of the membership functions on such points [3,10,14,15]. Such a solution provides a satisfying computational speed, a very high precision of definitions and gives the users the opportunity to choose membership functions of any shape. However, a significant memory waste can as well be registered. It is indeed possible that for each of the given fuzzy sets many elements of the universe of discourse have a membership value equal to zero. It has also been noticed that almost in all cases common points among fuzzy sets, i.e. points with non null membership values are very few. More specifically, in many applications, for each element u of U, there exists at most three fuzzy sets for which the membership value is ot null [3,5,6,7,12,13]. Our proposal is based on such hypotheses. Moreover, we use a technique that even though it does not restrict the shapes of membership functions, it reduces strongly the computational time for the membership values and optimizes the function memorization. In figure 1 it is represented a term set whose characteristics are common for fuzzy controllers and to which we will refer in the following. The above term set has a universe of discourse with 128 elements (so to have a good resolution), 8 fuzzy sets that describe the term set, 32 levels of discretization for the membership values. Clearly, the number of bits necessary for the given specifications are 5 for 32 truth levels, 3 for 8 membership functions and 7 for 128 levels of resolution. The memory depth is given by the dimension of the universe of the discourse (128 in our case) and it will be represented by the memory rows. The length of a world of memory is defined by: Length = nem (dm(m)＋dm(fm) Where: fm is the maximum number of non null values in every element of the universe of the discourse, dm(m) is the dimension of the values of the membership function m, dm(fm) is the dimension of the word to represent the index of the highest membership function. In our case then Length=24. The memory dimension is therefore 128*24 bits. If we had chosen to memorize all values of the membership functions we would have needed to memorize on each memory row the membership value of each element. Fuzzy sets word dimension is 8*5 bits. Therefore, the dimension of the memory would have been 128*40 bits. Coherently with our hypothesis, in fig. 1 each element of universe of the discourse has a non null membership value on at most three fuzzy sets. Focusing on the elements 32,64,96 of the universe of discourse, they will be memorized as follows: The computation of the rule weights is done by comparing those bits that represent the index of the membership function, with the word of the program memor . The output bus of the Program Memory (μCOD), is given as input a comparator (Combinatory Net). If the index is equal to the bus value then one of the non null weight derives from the rule and it is produced as output, otherwise the output is zero (fig. 2). It is clear, that the memory dimension of the antecedent is in this way reduced since only non null values are memorized. Moreover, the time performance of the system is equivalent to the performance of a system using vectorial memorization of all weights. The dimensioning of the word is influenced by some parameters of the input variable. The most important parameter is the maximum number membership functions (nfm) having a non null value in each element of the universe of discourse. From our study in the field of fuzzy system, we see that typically nfm 3 and there are at most 16 membership function. At any rate, such a value can be increased up to the physical dimensional limit of the antecedent memory. A less important role n the optimization process of the word dimension is played by the number of membership functions defined for each linguistic term. The table below shows the request word dimension as a function of such parameters and compares our proposed method with the method of vectorial memorization[10]. Summing up, the characteristics of our method are: Users are not restricted to membership functions with specific shapes. The number of the fuzzy sets and the resolution of the vertical axis have a very small influence in increasing memory space. Weight computations are done by combinatorial network and therefore the time performance of the system is equivalent to the one of the vectorial method. The number of non null membership values on any element of the universe of discourse is limited. Such a constraint is usually non very restrictive since many controllers obtain a good precision with only three non null weights. The method here briefly described has been adopted by our group in the design of an optimized version of the coprocessor described in [10].
A number of Korean native chicken(KNC) populations were registered in FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) DAD-IS (Domestic Animal Diversity Information Systems, http://www.fao.org/dad-is). But there is a lack of scientific basis to prove that they are unique population of Korea. For this reason, this study was conducted to prove KNC's uniqueness using 25 Microsatellite markers. A total of 548 chickens from 11 KNC populations (KNG, KNB, KNR, KNW, KNY, KNO, HIC, HYD, HBC, JJC, LTC) and 7 introduced populations (ARA: Araucana, RRC and RRD: Rhode Island Red C and D, LGF and LGK: White Leghorn F and K, COS and COH: Cornish brown and Cornish black) were used. Allele size per locus was decided using GeneMapper Software (v 5.0). A total of 195 alleles were observed and the range was 3 to 14 per locus. The MNA,
The study was made to give some helpful information for policy-making on ornamental tree cultivation by doing a survey on general situations, management analysis, and future prospects of the ornamental tree growing. The study was carried out through literature studies related to the subject, questionaire surveys, and on-the-spot investigation. The questionaire surveys could be divided into two parts: pre-questionaire survey and main-questionaire survey. In the pre-questionaire survey, the researchers intended to identify the total number of ornamental tree growers, cultivation areas in size and their locations. The questionaires were sent to each town and county administration authorities, forest cooperatives, and related organizations through-out the nation. The main-questionaires were prepared for detailed study and the questionaires were sent to 200 tree growers selected by option by taking considerations of the number of tree growers and the size of cultivating areas in regions. The main findings and some information obtained in the survey were as follows: 1. The total land for ornamental tree growing was amounted to 1,873.02 hectares and the number of cultivators was totaled to 2,717. 2. The main occupations of the ornamental tree growers were found in horticulture (41.9%), agronomy (25.9%), officialdom (11.3%), animal husbandry (6.5%), business circle(4.8%), and forestry (3.2%) in sequence. 3. The ornamental trees were cultivated mostly upperland (54.8), forest land (19.4%), rice paddy (11.3%) and others. 4. The educational training of the tree growers seemed quite high. The results of the survey indicated that a large number of tree growers was occupied by college graduates (38.7%), and then high school graduates (34.7%), middle school graduates (12.9%) in order. 5. The tree farming was undertaken as a side-job (41.9%) rather than main-job (23.4%), but a few of respondents rated as subsidiary-job (18.6%). 6. The management status classified by the rate of hired labors used was likely to belong to three categories: independant enterprise management (41.9%); half independant management (31.5%); and self-management (32.4%). 7. The majority of the tree growers sold their products to the consumers through middle-man channel (48.4%), or directly to the house-holder and detailers (13.7%), but a few of the respondents answered that they disposed of their products by bidding (11.2%) or by direct selling to the contractors (4.8%). 8. The channel cf marketing seemed somewhat complicated. The results of the survey were as: (1) producers
For the purpose of establishing the systematized technical scheme of the cooperative rice cultivation which has most significant impact to improve rice productivity and the farm management, the author have studied the cultivation practices, and the variation of rice growth and yield between the cooperative rice cultivation and the individual rice cultivation at random selected 18 paddy fields. The author also have investigated through comparative method on the cultivation practices, management, organization and operation scheme of the two different rice cultivation methods at 460 paddy fields. The economic feasibility has been ana lysed and added in this report. The results obtained from this study are summarized as follows; 1. In the nursery, the average amount of fertilizer application, especially, phosphate and potassium, and the frequency of chemicals spray for the disease, insect and pest control at the cooperative rice cultivation are significantly higher than those of the individual rice cultivation. 2. The cultivation techniques of the cooperative rice farming after the transplanting can be characterized by a) the earlier transplanting of rice, b) the denser hills per unit area and the lesser number of seedlings per hill, c) the application of larger quantities of fertilizer including nitrogen, phosphate and potassium, d) more divided application of fertilizers, split doses of the nitrogen and potassium, e) the increased frequencies of the chemicals spray for the prevention of disease, insect and pest damages. 3. The rate of lodging in the cooperative rice cultivation was slightly higher than that of the individual rice cultivation, however, the losses of rice yield owing to the occurrence of rice stem borer and grass leaf roller in the cooperative rice cultivation were lower than that of the individual rice cultivation. 4. The culm length, panicle length, straw weight and grain-straw ratio are respectively higher at the cooperative rice cultivation, moreover, the higher variation of the above factors due to different localities of the paddy fields found at the individual rice cultivation. 5. The number of panicles, number of flowers per panicle and the weight of 1, 000 grains, those contributing components to the rice yield were significantly greater in the cooperative rice cultivation, however, not clear difference in the maturing rate was observed. The variation coefficient of the yield component in the cooperative cultivation showed lower than that or the individual rice cultivation. 6. The average yield of brown rice per 10 are in the cooperative rice cultivation obtained 459.0 kilograms while that of the individual rice cultivation brought 374.8 kilograms. The yield of brown rice in the cooperative rice cultivation increased 84.2 kilogram per 10 are over the individual rice cultivation. With lower variation coefficient of the brown rice yield in the cooperative rice cultivation, it can be said that uniformed higher yield could be obtained through the cooperative rice cultivation. 7. Highly significant positive correlations shown between the seeding date and the number of flowers per panicle, the chemical spray and the number of flowers per panicle, the transplanting date and the number of flowers per panicle, phosphate application and yield, potassium application and maturing rate, the split application of fertilizers and yield. Whilst the significant negative correlation was shown between the transplanting date and the maturing rate 8. The results of investigation from 480 paddy fields obtained through comparative method on the following items are identical in general with those obtained at 18 paddy fields: Application of fertilizers, chemical spray for the control of disease, insects and pests both in the nursery and the paddy field, transplanting date, transplanting density, split application of fertilizers and yield n the paddy fields. a) The number of rice varieties used in the cooperative rice cultivation were 13 varieties while the individual rice cultivation used 47 varieties. b) The cooperative rice cultivation has more successfully adopted improved cultivation techniques such as the practice of seed disinfection, adoption of recommended seeding amount, fall ploughing, application of red soil, introduction of power tillers, the rectangular-type transplanting, midsummer drainage and the periodical irrigation. 9. The following results were also obtained from the same investigation and they are: a) In the cooperative rice cultivation, the greater part of the important practices have been carried out through cooperative operation including seed disinfection, ploughing, application of red soil and compost, the control of disease, insects and pests, harvest, threshing and transportation of the products. b) The labor input to the nursery bed and water control in the cooperative rice cultivation was less than that of the individual rice cultivation while the higher rate of labor input was resulted in the red soil and compost application. 10. From the investigation on the organization and operation scheme of the cooperative rice cultivation, the following results were obtained: a) The size of cooperative rice cultivation farm was varied from. 3 ha to 7 ha and 5 ha farm. occupied 55.9 percent of the total farms. And a single cooperative farm was consisted of 10 to 20 plots of paddies. b) The educational back ground of the staff members involved in the cooperative rice cultivation was superior than that of the individual rice cultivation. c) All of the farmers who participated to the questionaires have responded that the cooperative rice cultivation could promise the increased rice yield mainly through the introduction of the improved method of fertilizer application and the effective control of diseases, insects and pests damages. And the majority of farmers were also in the opinion that preparation of the materials and labor input can be timely carried out and the labor requirement for the rice cultivation possibly be saved through the cooperative rice cultivation. d) The farmers who have expressed their wishes to continue and to make further development of the cooperative rice cultivation was 74.5 percent of total farmers participated to the questionaires. 11. From the analysis of economical feasibility on the two different methods of cultivation, the following results were obtained: a) The value of operation cost for the compost, chemical fertilizers, agricultural chemicals and labor input in the cooperative rice cultivation was respectively higher by 335 won, 199 won, 288 won and 303 won over the individual rice cultivation. However, the other production costs showed no distinct differences between the two cultivation methods. b) Although the total value of expenses for the fertilizers, agricultural chemicals, labor input and etc. in the cooperative rice cultivation were approximately doubled to the amount of the individual rice cultivation, the net income, substracted operation costs from the gross income, was obtained 24, 302 won in the cooperative rice cultivation and 20, 168 won was obtained from the individual rice cultivation. Thereby, it can be said that net income from the cooperative rice cultivation increased 4, 134 won over the individual rice cultivation. It was revealed in this study that the cooperative rice cultivation has not only contributed to increment of the farm income through higher yield but also showed as an effective means to introduce highly improved cultivation techniques to the farmers. It may also be concluded, therefore, the cooperative rice cultivation shall continuously renovate the rice production process of the farmers.
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.