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A study on the classification of research topics based on COVID-19 academic research using Topic modeling (토픽모델링을 활용한 COVID-19 학술 연구 기반 연구 주제 분류에 관한 연구)

  • Yoo, So-yeon;Lim, Gyoo-gun
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.28 no.1
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    • pp.155-174
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    • 2022
  • From January 2020 to October 2021, more than 500,000 academic studies related to COVID-19 (Coronavirus-2, a fatal respiratory syndrome) have been published. The rapid increase in the number of papers related to COVID-19 is putting time and technical constraints on healthcare professionals and policy makers to quickly find important research. Therefore, in this study, we propose a method of extracting useful information from text data of extensive literature using LDA and Word2vec algorithm. Papers related to keywords to be searched were extracted from papers related to COVID-19, and detailed topics were identified. The data used the CORD-19 data set on Kaggle, a free academic resource prepared by major research groups and the White House to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, updated weekly. The research methods are divided into two main categories. First, 41,062 articles were collected through data filtering and pre-processing of the abstracts of 47,110 academic papers including full text. For this purpose, the number of publications related to COVID-19 by year was analyzed through exploratory data analysis using a Python program, and the top 10 journals under active research were identified. LDA and Word2vec algorithm were used to derive research topics related to COVID-19, and after analyzing related words, similarity was measured. Second, papers containing 'vaccine' and 'treatment' were extracted from among the topics derived from all papers, and a total of 4,555 papers related to 'vaccine' and 5,971 papers related to 'treatment' were extracted. did For each collected paper, detailed topics were analyzed using LDA and Word2vec algorithms, and a clustering method through PCA dimension reduction was applied to visualize groups of papers with similar themes using the t-SNE algorithm. A noteworthy point from the results of this study is that the topics that were not derived from the topics derived for all papers being researched in relation to COVID-19 (

    ) were the topic modeling results for each research topic (
    ) was found to be derived from For example, as a result of topic modeling for papers related to 'vaccine', a new topic titled Topic 05 'neutralizing antibodies' was extracted. A neutralizing antibody is an antibody that protects cells from infection when a virus enters the body, and is said to play an important role in the production of therapeutic agents and vaccine development. In addition, as a result of extracting topics from papers related to 'treatment', a new topic called Topic 05 'cytokine' was discovered. A cytokine storm is when the immune cells of our body do not defend against attacks, but attack normal cells. Hidden topics that could not be found for the entire thesis were classified according to keywords, and topic modeling was performed to find detailed topics. In this study, we proposed a method of extracting topics from a large amount of literature using the LDA algorithm and extracting similar words using the Skip-gram method that predicts the similar words as the central word among the Word2vec models. The combination of the LDA model and the Word2vec model tried to show better performance by identifying the relationship between the document and the LDA subject and the relationship between the Word2vec document. In addition, as a clustering method through PCA dimension reduction, a method for intuitively classifying documents by using the t-SNE technique to classify documents with similar themes and forming groups into a structured organization of documents was presented. In a situation where the efforts of many researchers to overcome COVID-19 cannot keep up with the rapid publication of academic papers related to COVID-19, it will reduce the precious time and effort of healthcare professionals and policy makers, and rapidly gain new insights. We hope to help you get It is also expected to be used as basic data for researchers to explore new research directions.

  • A Study of Growth Plan and the existing designed Community Businesses in Gangwon-do - Social businesses and town businesses in Gangwon-do - (커뮤니티 비지니스 지정 현황과 발전방안 제언 - 강원도 사회적기업과 마을기업을 중심으로 -)

    • Bae, Jung Nam;Park, Roh Gook;Ji, Kyoung Bae
      • Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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      • v.8 no.2
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      • pp.75-82
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      • 2013
    • This study was carried out to contribute to the self-help and sustainability of grassroots business in Gangwon-do. To achieve this, after setting up the concept of community business, understanding the current designating status of community business and analyzing the business content and the business promotion system, I tried to analyze the continuing factors of businesses and shops, which are more than hundred years old, in Japan and seek a solution to the sustainability of community business in the province. The community business in the province, which is designated and operated, is like this; 86 preliminary social businesses, 62 town businesses, 38 social businesses. The total comes to 186. The preliminary social businesses and the social businesses are assigned more in urban area and the manufacturing sector and educational field have a lot of business contents. When it comes to the business promotion system, there are many incorporated companies and limited companies. While the town businesses are assigned more in county area, the agricultural food field and cultural world have a lot of business contents. When it comes to the main participant of business, the agricultural corporations took the first place overwhelmingly. Especially, I found out that the main participants of community business consist of 38 voluntary associations, which is 20.4 %, and we need to make up for the specialty deficiency in business management. In order to keep the continuity of community business in the province, we could achieve the results of manpower development through the case analysis research, securing good materials which can give the consumers confidence, increasing the quality of the products, maintaining high technical skills, keeping up the tradition of business and demanding forecasting. I think a successive research efforts will be required for securing good materials and increasing the quality of the products in tandem with the local community. And also we need to establish a supporting & operating system through the liaison between the business & academic world, business & administration, and business & business for securing a management specialty as an industrialist.

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    Analysis on On-line Q&A Cases regarding Landscape Trees Management - Focused on Online Consultation Board at Tree Diagnostic Center - (조경수 관리에 관한 온라인 질의응답 사례 분석 - 수목진단센터 온라인 상담 사례를 대상으로 -)

    • Lim, Byoung-Eul;Lee, Sae-Hee
      • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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      • v.41 no.1
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      • pp.44-50
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      • 2013
    • The persons in charge of management request diagnosis and prescription to tree hospitals in order to get consultation about the problems like blight that occur in landscape tree management. This study aims to analyze what the main problems and questions raised by landscape gardeners are and those concerned in landscape tree management. This is done by investigating landscape tree-related questions and answers uploaded on the online consultation boards of the plant diagnostic centers approved in Korea including the Seoul National University Plant Clinic, the Chungbuk National University Plant Hospital, and the Kangwon Diagnostic Center. As a result, those concerned in landscape occupied the most as 81.4% among the questioners. However, only 11.5% did explain the plant management history or surrounding environment, which is essential for landscape tree diagnosis when asking questions. This shows that those concerned in landscape lack basic knowledge or interest about plant diagnosis. Among 263 questions about landscape trees, questions about physiological damage included 94 cases that were the most taking up 35.8%. Moreover, the next were damage by insects and damage by disease in order. It is thought that due to the characteristics of physiological problems that occur by various sorts of stress and with no signs, they tend to request diagnosis or prescription the most. The most frequent reasons for physiological damage are water stress and temperature stress. About damage by disease, there exist many types of diseases, and there are many complex damages accompanied by physiological causes. About damage by insects, the most common include damage by moths. In consideration of this result, universities or technician training centers should provide education for landscape tree management so that landscape technicians and students can acquire essential knowledge and information about landscape tree management and increase their interest in it. In particular, it is necessary to provide profound learning opportunities for plant physiology, and the technicians should make efforts themselves. In addition, it is needed to build organizations to which they can ask technical questions about landscape planting and management in order to understand landscape industry in general and the actual status of landscape planting technique and the actual field. Moreover, to elevate systemicity and expertise in the area of landscape tree management not yet equipped with the foundation, it is needed to cultivate the technicians intensively and conduct research by those concerned both in academic and industrial circles.

    A research on priority of the role and function of industrial high school recognized by industrial education specialist (공업계열 고등학교 역할과 기능의 우선 순위에 관한 공업교육 전문가 인식)

    • Oh, Seung-gyun;Kim, JinSoo
      • 대한공업교육학회지
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      • v.33 no.2
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      • pp.97-119
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      • 2008
    • The purpose of this research is to clarify the elements of the function of the role of industrial high schools that its experts perceived. The content of this research is verify the function element required for the performance of the role of specialized education through content validity ratio(CVR). This research adopted the method of literature research and Delphi method, which is to collect and come to an agreement of the opinions of the 26 research panels. The first round is constructed by the semi-constructed questionnaire for the analysis of the opinions of the panels by inductive method. The second round is to categorize the result of the first one into 7 domains, and asked each category by Likert's 5 scale checklists, and statistically analyzed mean, medium, standard deviation, and quartile. The third round is to statistically analyze Mean, standard deviation, medium, and validity ratio(CVR) to reassure the opinions of the panels on the basis of the result of the first one. The categorized contents of the function required for the performance of the specialized education in this research is 'in-service visit and in-service training', 'licence acquiring education', 'employment counseling and job employment information', 'custom-made education connected with industry', 'career education' and 'enhancement of basic career competency'. The panels are divided into professors, teachers, professionals, and policy administrators, and they verified the validity rate of the function role and priority of emphasis. The result showed that the tendency of the education is converting from physical function-centered education to education of emotional attitude and competence of thought.

    Analysis of the growth environment and fruiting body quality of Pleurotus eryngii cultivated by Smart Farming (큰느타리(새송이)버섯 스마트팜 재배를 통한 생육환경 분석 및 자실체 품질 특성)

    • Kim, Kil-Ja;Kim, Da-Mi;An, Ho-Sub;Choi, Jin-Kyung;Kim, Seon-Gon
      • Journal of Mushroom
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      • v.17 no.4
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      • pp.211-217
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      • 2019
    • Currently, cultivation of mushrooms using the Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-based smart farming technique is increasing rapidly. The main environmental factors for growth of mushrooms are temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide (CO2), and light. Among all the mentioned factors, currently, only temperature has been maintained under automatic control. However, humidity and ventilation are controlled using a timer, based on technical experience.Therefore, in this study, a Pleurotus eryngii first-generation smart farm model was set up that can automatically control temperature, humidity, and ventilation. After installing the environmental control system and the monitoring device, the environmental condition of the mushroom cultivation room and the growth of the fruiting bodies were studied. The data thus obtained was compared to that obtained using the conventional cultivation method.In farm A, the temperature during the primordia formation stage was about 17℃, and was maintained at approximately 16℃ during the fruiting stage. The humidity was initially maintained at 95%, and the farm was not humidified after the primordia formation stage. There was no sensor for CO2 management, and the system was ventilated as required by observing the shape of the pileus and the stipe. It was observed that, the concentration of CO2 was between 700 and 2,500 ppm during the growth period. The average weight of the mushrooms produced in farm A was 125 g, and the quality was between that of the premium and the first grade.In farm B. The CO2 sensor was in use for measurement purposes only; the system was ventilated as required by observing the shape of the pileus and the stipe. During the growth period, the CO2 concentration was observed to be between 640 and 4,500 ppm. The average weight of the mushrooms produced in farm B was 102 g.These results indicate that the quality of the king oyster mushroom is determined by the environmental conditions, especially by the concentration of CO2. Thus, the data obtained in this study can be used as an optimal smart farm model, where, by improving the environmental control method of farm A, better quality mushrooms were obtained.

    An Analysis on the Contents of the Food Sanitation in the Primary, Middle and High School Textbooks (초, 중, 고교 교과서의 식품위생 내용 분석 연구)

    • 남철현;변부형;노병의;남원계
      • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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      • v.9 no.2
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      • pp.95-104
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      • 1994
    • A study on food sanitation in school textbooks was performed for 7 months from October 1, 1992 through may 31, 1993. A total of 243 textbooks (77 from elementary school level, 52 from junior high school level and 114 from senior high school level) were reviewed and analyzed. This study was performed in order to develop better method for teaching the subjet of food sanitation to students effectively. The results are as follows: 1) A total number of pages of textbooks dealing with food sanitation were 48 pages (0.53%) in elementary level textbooks, 38.05 pages (0.31%) in junior high school level and 105.05 pages (0.34%) in senior high school level. 2) 104.05 pages were allocated for the subject of food storage, 33 pages for insect and rodent control, 32 pages for food poisoning, 15 pages for food contamination and 7 pages for kitchen hygiene. 3) Of the four categories of textbooks, the numbr of pages dealing with food sanitation were 145 in home economics, 31 in physical education, 12 in social studies and 3.0 in science. 4) Home economics and physical education textbooks allocated many pages in dealing with food sanitation. Home economics textbooks had 88 pages for food storage, 26.05 pages for food poisoning, 7 pages for food contamination, and 2 pages for kitchen hygiene. Physical education textbooks had 15 pages about food storage, 4 pages for food poisoning, 5 pages for food contamination, and 1 page for kitchen hygiene. 5) Social studies textbooks had 5 pages for food storage, 4 pages for insect and rodent control, 3 pages for food contamination. 6) The number of pages dealing with food sanitation in elementary school level textbooks were 20 in physical education, 13 in home economics, 12 in social studies, 3 in science respectively. 7) The number of pages dealing with food sanitation in junior high school level textbooks were 31.05 in home economics, and 7.00 in physical education textbooks. 31.50 pages were about food storage, 6 pages about food poisoning, 13 pages about insect and rodent control, and 1 page about kitchen hygiene. 8) The number of pages dealing with food sanitation in senior high school level textbooks were 101.05 in home economics and 4 in physical education textbooks. 64 pages were about food storage, 21.05 about food poisoning, 13 about insect and rodent control, 4 about kitchen hygiene, and 3 about food contamination. 9) Pictures, drawings and tables were used in explaining food sanitation in the textbooks, 32 drawings of a total of 38 cuts in elementary school level textbooks, 8 pictures of 10 cuts in junior high school level and 13 tables of 14 cuts in senior high school level were used. 10) 5th grade textbooks of elementary school did not have a subject on food poisoning. Other grade textbooks in elementary school level did not contain a subject on food contamination and insect and rodent control. It's recommended that these subjects be contained in the textbooks. 11) It is necessary to teach a subject on health or health and environment independently and contain food sanitation in the subject. It is recommended that a textbook on health or health and environment be published and taught to students. 12) It is recommended that teachers specialized in health education be assigened to schools to teach health related subjects. 13) It is recommended that book publishers use the latest information in the textbooks and technical terms be unified.

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    Research on the Re-organization of the Administration of Labor's Records in the custody of the National Archives (노동청 기록의 재조직에 관한 연구 - 국가기록원 소장 기록을 중심으로 -)

    • Kwak, Kun-Hong
      • The Korean Journal of Archival Studies
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      • no.23
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      • pp.141-178
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      • 2010
    • The Administration of Labor was responsible for the technical and practical functions like policy-making of labor matters and implementing the relevant laws. However, there has been a few record transferred to the National Archives to help find out the labor policy-making process. This is one of the typical examples that shows the discontinuity and unbalance, and disorderly filing of the administrative records in Korea. Naturally it is almost impossible to retrieve the appropriate content through the records file-name. Users should be at the trouble to compare the record items and their content one by one. For the re-organization of the Administration of Labor' records, this research suggests the four-level analysis of functions of the Administration. The Administration of Labor' survived records could be linked to each level function. And the publication of the 'Records Abstract Catalog' providing users with more information about the records would pave the way for easier access to the records. In addition, it also suggests the logical re-filing of the survived records of which we cannot find the order or sequence. This re-organization of the survived records would help to establish the acquisition and appraisal policy of the labor records as well as the new way of description and finding tool hereafter. Drawing up labor history map is a starting point for the acquisition strategy of the labor records, which could allow users to gain systematic access on the survived records. Of course, extensive investigation and research on the survived records is a prerequisite for the map. It would be required to research on the survived records of the other government agencies, including economic-social area ministries and investigation agencies and the National Assembly as well. It is also needed to arrange and typify the significant incidents and activities on thematic and periodic frames in the labor history. If possible to understand or connect the survived records and these accomplishments comprehensively, it would be of great help for the acquisition of the labor records and the related oral records projects.

    Strategy for Store Management Using SOM Based on RFM (RFM 기반 SOM을 이용한 매장관리 전략 도출)

    • Jeong, Yoon Jeong;Choi, Il Young;Kim, Jae Kyeong;Choi, Ju Choel
      • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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      • v.21 no.2
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      • pp.93-112
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      • 2015
    • Depending on the change in consumer's consumption pattern, existing retail shop has evolved in hypermarket or convenience store offering grocery and daily products mostly. Therefore, it is important to maintain the inventory levels and proper product configuration for effectively utilize the limited space in the retail store and increasing sales. Accordingly, this study proposed proper product configuration and inventory level strategy based on RFM(Recency, Frequency, Monetary) model and SOM(self-organizing map) for manage the retail shop effectively. RFM model is analytic model to analyze customer behaviors based on the past customer's buying activities. And it can differentiates important customers from large data by three variables. R represents recency, which refers to the last purchase of commodities. The latest consuming customer has bigger R. F represents frequency, which refers to the number of transactions in a particular period and M represents monetary, which refers to consumption money amount in a particular period. Thus, RFM method has been known to be a very effective model for customer segmentation. In this study, using a normalized value of the RFM variables, SOM cluster analysis was performed. SOM is regarded as one of the most distinguished artificial neural network models in the unsupervised learning tool space. It is a popular tool for clustering and visualization of high dimensional data in such a way that similar items are grouped spatially close to one another. In particular, it has been successfully applied in various technical fields for finding patterns. In our research, the procedure tries to find sales patterns by analyzing product sales records with Recency, Frequency and Monetary values. And to suggest a business strategy, we conduct the decision tree based on SOM results. To validate the proposed procedure in this study, we adopted the M-mart data collected between 2014.01.01~2014.12.31. Each product get the value of R, F, M, and they are clustered by 9 using SOM. And we also performed three tests using the weekday data, weekend data, whole data in order to analyze the sales pattern change. In order to propose the strategy of each cluster, we examine the criteria of product clustering. The clusters through the SOM can be explained by the characteristics of these clusters of decision trees. As a result, we can suggest the inventory management strategy of each 9 clusters through the suggested procedures of the study. The highest of all three value(R, F, M) cluster's products need to have high level of the inventory as well as to be disposed in a place where it can be increasing customer's path. In contrast, the lowest of all three value(R, F, M) cluster's products need to have low level of inventory as well as to be disposed in a place where visibility is low. The highest R value cluster's products is usually new releases products, and need to be placed on the front of the store. And, manager should decrease inventory levels gradually in the highest F value cluster's products purchased in the past. Because, we assume that cluster has lower R value and the M value than the average value of good. And it can be deduced that product are sold poorly in recent days and total sales also will be lower than the frequency. The procedure presented in this study is expected to contribute to raising the profitability of the retail store. The paper is organized as follows. The second chapter briefly reviews the literature related to this study. The third chapter suggests procedures for research proposals, and the fourth chapter applied suggested procedure using the actual product sales data. Finally, the fifth chapter described the conclusion of the study and further research.

    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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