• The Journal of Dong Guk Oriental Medicine
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• v.10
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• pp.119-145
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• 2008

Through a simple study of the medical classics in the '$\bar{A}yurveda$', we have summarized them as follows. 1) Traditional Indian medicine started in the Ganges river area at about 1500 B. C. E. and traces of medical science can be found in the "Rigveda" and "Atharvaveda". 2) The "Charaka(閣羅迦集)" and "$Su\acute{s}hruta$(妙聞集)", ancient texts from India, are not the work of one person, but the result of the work and errors of different doctors and philosophers. Due to the lack of historical records, the time of Charaka(閣羅迦) or $Su\acute{s}hruta$(妙聞)s' lives are not exactly known. So the completion of the "Charaka" is estimated at 1st$\sim$2nd century C. E. in northwestern India, and the "$Su\acute{s}hruta$" is estimated to have been completed in 3rd$\sim$4th century C. E. in central India. Also, the "Charaka" contains details on internal medicine, while the "$Su\acute{s}hruta$" contains more details on surgery by comparison. 3) '$V\bar{a}gbhata$', one of the revered Vriddha Trayi(triad of the ancients, 三醫聖) of the '$\bar{A}yurveda$', lived and worked in about the 7th century and wrote the "$Ast\bar{a}nga$ $Ast\bar{a}nga$ hrdaya $samhit\bar{a}$ $samhit\bar{a}$(八支集) and "$Ast\bar{a}nga$ Sangraha $samhit\bar{a}$(八心集)", where he tried to compromise and unify the "Charaka" and "$Su\acute{s}hruta$". The "$Ast\bar{a}nga$ Sangraha $samhit\bar{a}$" was translated into Tibetan and Arabic at about the 8th$\sim$9th century, and if we generalize the medicinal plants recorded in each the "Charaka", "$Su\acute{s}hruta$" and the "$Ast\bar{a}nga$ Sangraha $samhit\bar{a}$", there are 240, 370, 240 types each. 4) The 'Madhava' focused on one of the subjects of Indian medicine, '$Nid\bar{a}na$' ie meaning "the cause of diseases(病因論)", and in one of the copies found by Bower in 4th century C. E. we can see that it uses prescriptions from the "BuHaLaJi(布唅拉集)", "Charaka", "$Su\acute{s}hruta$". 5) According to the "Charaka", there were 8 branches of ancient medicine in India : treatment of the body(kayacikitsa), special surgery(salakya), removal of alien substances(salyapahartka), treatment of poison or mis-combined medicines(visagaravairodhikaprasamana), the study of ghosts(bhutavidya), pediatrics(kaumarabhrtya), perennial youth and long life(rasayana), and the strengthening of the essence of the body(vajikarana). 6) The '$\bar{A}yurveda$', which originated from ancient experience, was recorded in Sanskrit, which was a theorization of knowledge, and also was written in verses to make memorizing easy, and made medicine the exclusive possession of the Brahmin. The first annotations were 1060 for the "Charaka", 1200 for the "$Su\acute{s}hruta$", 1150 for the "$Ast\bar{a}nga$ Sangraha $samhit\bar{a}$", and 1100 for the "$Nid\bar{a}na$". The use of various mineral medicines in the "Charaka" or the use of mercury as internal medicine in the "$Ast\bar{a}nga$ Sangraha $samhit\bar{a}$", and the palpation of the pulse for diagnosing in the '$\bar{A}yurveda$' and 'XiZhang(西藏)' medicine are similar to TCM's pulse diagnostics. The coexistence with Arabian 'Unani' medicine, compromise with western medicine and the reactionism trend restored the '$\bar{A}yurveda$' today. 7) The "Charaka" is a book inclined to internal medicine that investigates the origin of human disease which used the dualism of the 'Samkhya', the natural philosophy of the 'Vaisesika' and the logic of the 'Nyaya' in medical theories, and its structure has 16 syllables per line, 2 lines per poem and is recorded in poetry and prose. Also, the "Charaka" can be summarized into the introduction, cause, judgement, body, sensory organs, treatment, pharmaceuticals, and end, and can be seen as a work that strongly reflects the moral code of Brahmin and Aryans. 8) In extracting bloody pus, the "Charaka" introduces a 'sharp tool' bloodletting treatment, while the "$Su\acute{s}hruta$" introduces many surgical methods such as the use of gourd dippers, horns, sucking the blood with leeches. Also the "$Su\acute{s}hruta$" has 19 chapters specializing in ophthalmology, and shows 76 types of eye diseases and their treatments. 9) Since anatomy did not develop in Indian medicine, the inner structure of the human body was not well known. The only exception is 'GuXiangXue(骨相學)' which developed from 'Atharvaveda' times and the "$Ast\bar{a}nga$ Sangraha $samhit\bar{a}$". In the "$Ast\bar{a}nga$ Sangraha $samhit\bar{a}$"'s 'ShenTiLun(身體論)' there is a thorough listing of the development of a child from pregnancy to birth. The '$\bar{A}yurveda$' is not just an ancient traditional medical system but is being called alternative medicine in the west because of its ability to supplement western medicine and, as its effects are being proved scientifically it is gaining attention worldwide. We would like to say that what we have researched is just a small fragment and a limited view, and would like to correct and supplement any insufficient parts through more research of new records.

• Journal of Technologic Dentistry
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.417-433
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• 2010

Purpose: This study evaluated the manpower planning of dental technicians. Methods: Methods : Survey was conducted regarding subject's general characteristics, characteristics of dental technician's occupational view and working conditions, and reason to enter into branches of the public health enter. The survey sample consisted of 323 dental technicians (221 male/ 102 female). Survey was conducted for one month from August 1 to September 1 in 2010. Following results were obtained. Results: 1. Regarding general characteristics of the subjects, there was a slight male predilection with 68.4%. Subjects in their 40s occupied the highest proportion of 32.2%. Majority of subjects worked in the big cities (71.5%). Favored working places were dental laboratory (57.6%) and dental hospital or dental clinic (19.5%). Although no position is available in the public sector such as public health center or health care civil servant, 9.3% preferred working in the public health center. Public sector is more favored than 2-year technical colleges or dental supply and equipment companies. In respect to education, 57% of the subjects graduated college. 67.8% were married. Subjects who specialize in the porcelain or all-ceramic were 57.9%. With regard to current position, head of the dental laboratory was most common. 2. Following occupation characteristics were found. Economic reason took the highest proportion when deciding their occupation (39.9%) followed by gaining social experience (36.5%). Majority of the subjects (76.5%) wanted to work as dental technicians until their retirement. 71.5% pursuit to become a manager of the dental laboratory. 76.1% agreed on opening a dental technician position in the public health center. Regarding an authority to lead developing the dental technician position in the public sector, majority of the subject chose ministry of health and welfare (35.6%) and Korean dental technologist association (34.7%). Employment (average, 30%) and turnover rate (average, 36.5%) of dental technology college graduates ranged from 40% to 60%. Most important factors for the employment were practical experience (41.2%) and competency (34.4%). With regard to job satisfaction, so-so as 46.7% and satisfactory was 42.7% 3. In respect to the reason for opening a position in the public health center, 'It is needed to continue denture rogram for elderly patients' obtained the highest score (4.14 point). 'Institutional devices are required to open a position for dental technicians as a public healthcare provider' received high score (4.11 point). 4. Concerning the working conditions, 'professional knowledge is required' received the highest score (4.23) followed by 'too short maternity and parental leave' (4.21). 5. Relationship between general characteristics of the subjects and favor of working in the public health center was investigated. Significant differences were found according to the current and favored working area, favored occupation, education level, marital status, and specialty. Working in the public health center was favored by following subjects: working in mid- or small-sized cities (4.16 point, p<0.05); PhD degree-holder (4.59 point, p<0.01). 6. Among general characteristics of the subjects, significant difference of working conditions was found in the following factors: gender; working areas; favored working areas; favored working positions, and education level. Majority of subjects favored working in big cities and currently work in big cities although satisfaction was comparatively low (3.75 score). 7. Future plan to work in public health center was evaluated according to occupational characteristics. Subject's intention to work in the public healthcare center was significantly affected by opening of dental technician position, leading authority, average turnover rate, and factors affecting employment. Working in the public health care center was favored by the following subjects: Dental technicians who actively supported opening of the dental technician position (4.34 point, p<0.001); subjects who thought the Korean dental technologist association is responsible for the opening of positions in the public sector (4.26 point, p<0.001); and subjects who thought that attitude and character are important for the employment (p<0.001). 8. Concerning difference of working conditions according to the occupational characteristics, significant difference was demonstrated by factors such as a reason to choose to be a dental technician, work plan, pursuing position, responsible authority, average employment rate, and job satisfaction. High standard of working conditions was required in subjects who selected to be a dental technician for the leisure time after work (s.05 point, p<0.01), who planted to work until their marriage (4.25 point, p<0.001), and who pursuit to be a manager (3.98, p<0.05). 9. In respect to influence of general characteristics on the advancement to public health centers, the coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.068 and age affected the working condition with significant difference according to the pvalue. 10. Regarding influence of general characteristics on the advancement to public health centers, the coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.335 and work plan, opening of dental technician position in the public sector, and responsible authority had significant influence over the subject's intention to work in the public health center according to the p-value. 11. With regard to the influence of general characteristics on the advancement to public health centers, the coefficient of determination (R2) was 0.091 and reason to choose to be a dental technician, work plan, and responsible authority significantly affected subject's working conditions. Conclusion: Korean society is becoming a super-aged society according to several statistics. As aged population is rapidly increasing, national health insurance plans to cover denture for senior citizen over 75 years old from 2012. Therefore, dental technicians are urgently needed in the public health centers all over the nation. Many subjects in this study planed to work until their retirement and recognized dental technician's expertise. Ministry of health and welfare and Korean dental technologist association should co-operate each other to prepare foundation and institutional devices for dental technicians to advance into the public health center. This will improve oral health of the population. This study showed urgency of medical facilities and services which meets increasing number of aged population and welfare of the population.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.36 no.9
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• pp.1172-1181
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• 2007

This research involved 226 Jeonbuk Province school dietitians as subjects to investigate intake and perceptions of the healthy functional foods. Sixty nine percent of the school dietitians didn't even know about the law enforcement concerning the health functional foods. Although 68.1% of the respondents said that they slightly knew about health functional foods, only 25% knew exactly what it was. As shown in the survey, most didn't have the cognitive understanding did not understand which should be obtained by education. Sixty two percent of the answerers said they had experience of taking health various functional food products of various kinds such as supplements (57.9%), red ginseng products (52.9%), and chlorella products (30.0%). The motive of intake was in the order of fatigue restoration (25.7%), sickness prevention (22.9%), and nutrient replenishment (22.9%). A fascinating fact from this study was that the reason for healthy functional product intake was different between groups that was primarily interested in the products and those that was not. For those who had interest, the reason for intake was for sickness prevention. On the other hand, for those who didn't have any interest, the reasons was primarily for fatigue restoration and they were mostly persuaded by close friends and relatives. Main concerns were in the order of side effects (4.72), efficacy after intake (4.59), cleanliness (4.51), reliability of the company (4.29), and price (4.23). In view of the study, it is clear that a lot of people are showing interest in healthy functional food products. However, dietitians who are experts in food and nutrition lacked knowledge and information on healthy functional food.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2012

In recent years, mobile phone has experienced an extremely fast evolution. It is equipped with high-quality color displays, high resolution cameras, and real-time accelerated 3D graphics. In addition, some other features are includes GPS sensor and Digital Compass, etc. This evolution advent significantly helps the application developers to use the power of smart-phones, to create a rich environment that offers a wide range of services and exciting possibilities. To date mobile AR in outdoor research there are many popular location-based AR services, such Layar and Wikitude. These systems have big limitation the AR contents hardly overlaid on the real target. Another research is context-based AR services using image recognition and tracking. The AR contents are precisely overlaid on the real target. But the real-time performance is restricted by the retrieval time and hardly implement in large scale area. In our work, we exploit to combine advantages of location-based AR with context-based AR. The system can easily find out surrounding landmarks first and then do the recognition and tracking with them. The proposed system mainly consists of two major parts-landmark browsing module and annotation module. In landmark browsing module, user can view an augmented virtual information (information media), such as text, picture and video on their smart-phone viewfinder, when they pointing out their smart-phone to a certain building or landmark. For this, landmark recognition technique is applied in this work. SURF point-based features are used in the matching process due to their robustness. To ensure the image retrieval and matching processes is fast enough for real time tracking, we exploit the contextual device (GPS and digital compass) information. This is necessary to select the nearest and pointed orientation landmarks from the database. The queried image is only matched with this selected data. Therefore, the speed for matching will be significantly increased. Secondly is the annotation module. Instead of viewing only the augmented information media, user can create virtual annotation based on linked data. Having to know a full knowledge about the landmark, are not necessary required. They can simply look for the appropriate topic by searching it with a keyword in linked data. With this, it helps the system to find out target URI in order to generate correct AR contents. On the other hand, in order to recognize target landmarks, images of selected building or landmark are captured from different angle and distance. This procedure looks like a similar processing of building a connection between the real building and the virtual information existed in the Linked Open Data. In our experiments, search range in the database is reduced by clustering images into groups according to their coordinates. A Grid-base clustering method and user location information are used to restrict the retrieval range. Comparing the existed research using cluster and GPS information the retrieval time is around 70~80ms. Experiment results show our approach the retrieval time reduces to around 18~20ms in average. Therefore the totally processing time is reduced from 490~540ms to 438~480ms. The performance improvement will be more obvious when the database growing. It demonstrates the proposed system is efficient and robust in many cases.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.67-88
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• 2018

Until recently, as we recognize the significance of sustainable growth and competitiveness of small-and-medium sized enterprises (SMEs), governmental support for tangible resources such as R&D, manpower, funds, etc. has been mainly provided. However, it is also true that the inefficiency of support systems such as underestimated or redundant support has been raised because there exist conflicting policies in terms of appropriateness, effectiveness and efficiency of business support. From the perspective of the government or a company, we believe that due to limited resources of SMEs technology development and capacity enhancement through collaboration with external sources is the basis for creating competitive advantage for companies, and also emphasize value creation activities for it. This is why value chain network analysis is necessary in order to analyze inter-company deal relationships from a series of value chains and visualize results through establishing knowledge ecosystems at the corporate level. There exist Technology Opportunity Discovery (TOD) system that provides information on relevant products or technology status of companies with patents through retrievals over patent, product, or company name, CRETOP and KISLINE which both allow to view company (financial) information and credit information, but there exists no online system that provides a list of similar (competitive) companies based on the analysis of value chain network or information on potential clients or demanders that can have business deals in future. Therefore, we focus on the "Value Chain Network System (VCNS)", a support partner for planning the corporate business strategy developed and managed by KISTI, and investigate the types of embedded network-based analysis modules, databases (D/Bs) to support them, and how to utilize the system efficiently. Further we explore the function of network visualization in intelligent value chain analysis system which becomes the core information to understand industrial structure ystem and to develop a company's new product development. In order for a company to have the competitive superiority over other companies, it is necessary to identify who are the competitors with patents or products currently being produced, and searching for similar companies or competitors by each type of industry is the key to securing competitiveness in the commercialization of the target company. In addition, transaction information, which becomes business activity between companies, plays an important role in providing information regarding potential customers when both parties enter similar fields together. Identifying a competitor at the enterprise or industry level by using a network map based on such inter-company sales information can be implemented as a core module of value chain analysis. The Value Chain Network System (VCNS) combines the concepts of value chain and industrial structure analysis with corporate information simply collected to date, so that it can grasp not only the market competition situation of individual companies but also the value chain relationship of a specific industry. Especially, it can be useful as an information analysis tool at the corporate level such as identification of industry structure, identification of competitor trends, analysis of competitors, locating suppliers (sellers) and demanders (buyers), industry trends by item, finding promising items, finding new entrants, finding core companies and items by value chain, and recognizing the patents with corresponding companies, etc. In addition, based on the objectivity and reliability of the analysis results from transaction deals information and financial data, it is expected that value chain network system will be utilized for various purposes such as information support for business evaluation, R&D decision support and mid-term or short-term demand forecasting, in particular to more than 15,000 member companies in Korea, employees in R&D service sectors government-funded research institutes and public organizations. In order to strengthen business competitiveness of companies, technology, patent and market information have been provided so far mainly by government agencies and private research-and-development service companies. This service has been presented in frames of patent analysis (mainly for rating, quantitative analysis) or market analysis (for market prediction and demand forecasting based on market reports). However, there was a limitation to solving the lack of information, which is one of the difficulties that firms in Korea often face in the stage of commercialization. In particular, it is much more difficult to obtain information about competitors and potential candidates. In this study, the real-time value chain analysis and visualization service module based on the proposed network map and the data in hands is compared with the expected market share, estimated sales volume, contact information (which implies potential suppliers for raw material / parts, and potential demanders for complete products / modules). In future research, we intend to carry out the in-depth research for further investigating the indices of competitive factors through participation of research subjects and newly developing competitive indices for competitors or substitute items, and to additively promoting with data mining techniques and algorithms for improving the performance of VCNS.

• 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.