• Title/Summary/Keyword: Similarity evaluation

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Evaluation of the Efficiency of E. coli O157: H7 Rapid Detection Kit using Immunochromatography (면역크로마토그래피를 이용한 E. coli O157: H7 신속검출 키트의 유효성 평가)

  • Kwak, Hyo-Sun;Lee, Dong-Ha;Moon, Hee-Sook;Park, Jong-Seok;Woo, Gun-Jo;Kim, Chang-Min
    • Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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    • v.18 no.3
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    • pp.118-124
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    • 2003
  • For the rapid detection of various pathogenic microorganisms from food sample, various kinds of kits have been developed and commercially available in the markets. With the advantages of speed, accuracy and easiness, the market of these kits has gradually increased for the QC and QA field of food company as well as testing facilities or laboratories. In this study, the characteristics such as the detection limit and the sensitivity of immunochromatographic type of rapid detection kit (Donga Co, Korea, D-kit) for E. coli 0157:H7 developed by monoclonal antibody were examined and also the possibility of application of the kit to food samples was evaluated. The reference kits used for comparison study were Reveal E. coli 0157:H7 (Neogen Co., USA, R-kit) and VIP EHEC kit (Biocontrol Inc., USA, V-kit) occupying major market share. In the detection limit test with the E. coli 0157:H7 reference, both R-kit and D-kit showed a distinct positive reaction in $10^4$/ml and weak positive reaction in $10^3$/ml, whereas V-kit showed a same reaction in 105/ml. Also, it was identified that the culture treated with heat showed more sensitivity than no heat treated culture. The sensitivity test was conducted against 22 isolates of E. coli 0157:H7, 7 strains of non-O157:H7 verotoxin-producing E. coli, 40 strains of E. coli with different O and H antigen type, and 38 strains of non-E. coli Enterobacteriaceae, and all of the test strains except three were showed exactly three were showed exactly the same reaction against three kinds of the tested kits. All the three kinds of kits showed a positive reaction against E. coli O157:H19, E. coli O148:H18 and Salmonella galinarium. We suppose that there might be a similarity in serological property between these three strains and O157:H7. From the test results, it can be concluded that there is (was) no difference between the D-kit developed in this study and R-kit or V-kit based on the detection limit and sensitivity.

Numerical Approach for Evaluation of Forest Soil Fertility (수치적(數値的) 접근방법(接近方法)에 의(依)한 산림토양(山林土壤)의 비옥도(肥沃度) 평가(評價))

  • Ma, Sang Kyu
    • Journal of Korean Society of Forest Science
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    • v.35 no.1
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    • pp.1-8
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    • 1977
  • Forest soil fertility was evaluated through the approach of numerical method. In this study, the soil chemical properties analyzed for 35 different soil series as table 2 were cited in numerical analysis. Minimum contents of essential nutrients in the surface soil for a satisfactory growth of tree in the plantation were evaluated by comparing with Wild's standard as table 1. Demanding level of fertilization were evaluated by using the formula 1 as table 5. Similar relation of soil chemical properties between soil series were calculated through formula 2, and then classified into 5 groups in soil chemical properties. 1. General chemical properties of surface soil in case of 35 soil series. About 40 percent of 35 different soil series are less than 2 percent in organic matter, 10 ppm in available phosphorus, 1.25m.e/l00g in exchangeable calcium and 0.5m.e/l00g in exchangeable magnesium. Generally, shortage of exchangeable potash are not found. CEC less than 10m.e/l00g are in two thirds and strong acid soil less than PH 5.5 are in about four fifths. 2. Soil series requested or not the fertilization are indirectly evaluated from the formula 1 using the relative figure of chemical components of CEC, OM and MgO. Through this analysis, 8 different soil series have very poor quality in soil chemical capacity so that demands highly the fertilization. On the other hand, other 13 different soil series group have not been thought to need the fertilization according to chemical guality. 3. By the results comparing the similarity of chemical properties of forest soil, it is thought to be suitable that the forest soil fertility are divided into 5 groups as follows: 1. Low CEC soil 1-1 Low organic matter soil less than 2 percent 1-2 Medium organic matter soil less than 4 percent 2. High CEC and organic matter soil 2-1 Low magnesium soil 2-2 High magnesium soil 3. High magnesium and calcium soil as lime stone.

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The comparative study of three-dimensional cephalograms to actual models and conventional lateral cephalograms in linear and angular measurements (3차원 두부방사선규격사진의 정확성에 관한 연구 -실제 계측 및 측모 두부방사선 규격사진 계측과의 비교-)

  • BAE, Gi-Sun;Park, Soo-Byung;Son, Woo-Sung
    • The korean journal of orthodontics
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    • v.27 no.1
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    • pp.129-140
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    • 1997
  • Conventional cephalometrics have inherent errors because their evaluation is performed in two-dimension for threedimensional object. To compensate these errors, three-dimensional cephalograms - derivation of three-dimensional data from conventional lateral and postero-anterior cephalograms - were developed. In this study, the accuracy and precision of three dimensional cephalograms were determined by means of 10 linear and 12 angular measurements on 36 acrylic skull models and by the comparison of conventional lateral cephalograms. The results were as follows 1. Mean difference between three-dimensional cephalograms and actual models in linear measurements was $0.94{\pm}0.62mm$ and mean rate of magnification of three-dimensional cephalograms was $100.31{\pm}0.91%$. There were no statistically significant differences between three-dimensional cephalograms and actual models in linear measurements(${\alpha}=0.1$). 2. Mean difference between conventional lateral cephalograms and actual models in linear measurements was $6.44{\pm}1.48mm$ and mean rate of magnification of lateral cephalograms was $106.99{\pm}1.45%$. There were statistically significant differences between lateral cephalograms and actual models in linear measurements(P<0.005). 3. Mean difference between three-dimensional cephalograms and actual models in angular measurements was $1.22{\pm}0.82^{\circ}$ and mean rate of magnification of three-dimensional cephalograms was $105.71{\pm}12.07%$. There were no statistically significant differences between three-dimensional cephalograms and actual models in angular measurements(${\alpha}=0.1$). 4. Mean difference between conventional lateral cephalograms and actual models in angular measurements was $1.70{\pm}0.94^{\circ}$ and mean rate of magnification of lateral cephalograms was $106.35{\pm}15.70%$. There were no statistically significant differences between lateral cephalograms and actual models in angular measurements(${\alpha}=0.1$). There were similarity between three-dimensional and lateral cephalograms in angular measurements.

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Relationships of Korean Euphorbia L.(Euphorbiaceae) based on pollen morphology (화분 형태에 의한 한국산 대극속(Euphorbia L., Euphorbiaceae) 식물의 분류학적 유연관계)

  • Oh, Byoung-Un;Kim, Young-Su;Chung, Gyu-Young;Kim, Mi-Kyoung;Park, Ki-Ryong;Kim, Joo-Hwan;Park, Seon-Joo
    • Korean Journal of Plant Taxonomy
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    • v.32 no.3
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    • pp.339-362
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    • 2002
  • Pollen morphology of 13 species of Korean Euphorbia was re-examined by means of LM and SEM. Taxonomic evaluation of palynological characters and relationships among taxa were also discussed based on the analysis of polar length, equatorial diameter, aperture size and exine thickness. Korean Euphorbia species were classified into three groups based on the mean size of polar length (P) and equatorial diameter (E) as follows:Group 1. sect. Tulocarpa and Tithymalus of subgenus Esula; $(P){\times}(E)=(54.88-67.17{\mu}m){\times}(44.30-64.75{\mu}m)$, Group 2. sect. Esula and Helioscpiae of subgenus Esula; $(P){\times}(E)=(39.98-47.24{\mu}m){\times}(36.07-38.83{\mu}m)$, Group 3. sect. Chamaesyce and Hypericifoliae of subgenus Chamaesyce; $(P){\times}(E)=(30.32-32.51{\mu}m){\times}(21.71-26.23{\mu}m)$. Various features of surface sculpturing were also grouped into 8 types by the characteristics of perporation size and distance of perporations as well as connection state of it. Pollen size and surface sculpturing were comparatively available in the levels of subgenus and section. Especially subgenus Chamaesyce was distinctly different from subgenus Esula by having compactly distributed perporations on exine surface as well as its small size of pollen grains. Because of the great variations in pollen size and the occurrence of various types of surface sculpturing according to the local poulations of each species, it was evaluated that they were unsuitable in classifying each species of Euphorbia. But such cases, that is, E. hylonoma being more familiar with E. ebracteolata than E. Pallasii, and E. pekinensis and E. fauriei as well as E. pallasii being strongly related with each other based on the similarity of surface sculpturing, reflected its usefulness in the classification of some Euphorbia species.

Application of diversity of recommender system accordingtouserpreferencechange (사용자 선호도 변화에 따른 추천시스템의 다양성 적용)

  • Na, Hyeyeon;Nam, Kihwan
    • Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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    • v.26 no.4
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    • pp.67-86
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    • 2020
  • Recommender Systems have been huge influence users and business more and more. Recently the importance of E-commerce has been reached rapid growth greatly in world-wide COVID-19 pandemic. Recommender system is the center of E-commerce lively. Top ranked E-commerce managers mentioned that recommender systems have a major influence on customer's purchase such as about 50% of Netflix, Amazon sales from their recommender systems. Most algorithms have been focused on improving accuracy of recommender system regardless of novelty, diversity, serendipity etc. Recommender systems with only high accuracy cannot satisfy business long-term profit because of generating sales polarization. In addition, customers do not experience enjoyment of shopping from only focusing accuracy recommender system because customer's preference is changed constantly. Therefore, recommender systems with various values need to be developed for user's high satisfaction. Reranking is the most useful methodology to realize diversity of recommender system. In this paper, diversity of recommender system is represented through constructing high similarity with users who have different preference using each user's purchased item's category algorithm. It is distinguished from past research approach which is changing the algorithm of recommender system without user's diversity preference level. We tried to discover user's diversity preference level and observed the results how the effect was different according to user's diversity preference level. In addition, graph-based recommender system was used to show diversity through user's network, not collaborative filtering. In this paper, Amazon Grocery and Gourmet Food data was used because the low-involvement product, such as habitual product, foods, low-priced goods etc., had high probability to show customer's diversity. First, a bipartite graph with users and items simultaneously is constructed to make graph-based recommender system. However, each users and items unipartite graph also need to be established to show diversity of recommender system. The weight of each unipartite graph has played crucial role changing Jaccard Distance of item's category. We can observe two important results from the user's unipartite network. First, the user's diversity preference level is observed from the network and second, dissimilar users can be discovered in the user's network. Through the research process, diversity of recommender system is presented highly with small accuracy loss and optimalization for higher accuracy is possible controlling diversity ratio. This paper has three important theoretical points. First, this research expands recommender system research for user's satisfaction with various values. Second, the graph-based recommender system is developed newly. Third, the evaluation indicator of diversity is made for diversity. In addition, recommender systems are useful for corporate profit practically and this paper has contribution on business closely. Above all, business long-term profit can be improved using recommender system with diversity and the recommender system can provide right service according to user's diversity level. Lastly, the corporate selling low-involvement products have great effect based on the results.

Evaluation of usefulness for Stereotactic Partial Breast Irradiation(S-PBI) by using Surface Fiducial Marker (표면위치표지자를 적용한 정위적 부분유방방사선치료의 유용성 평가)

  • Kim, JongYeol;Jung, DongMin;Kim, SeYoung;Yoo, HyunJong;Choi, JungHoan;Park, HyoKuk;Baek, JongGeol;Lee, SangKyu;Cho, JeongHee
    • The Journal of Korean Society for Radiation Therapy
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    • v.33
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    • pp.99-108
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    • 2021
  • Purpose: The goal of this study is to evaluate usefulness of noninvasive method instead of previous inserting Fiducial Marker Method when performing Stereotactic Partial Breast Irradiation in CyberKnife. Material and methods: For consistency of Imaging Center, we evaluated both oblique images at angle 45 and 315 acquired from 2D Simulator and CyberKnife quantitatively through dice similarity coefficient. Also, location reproducibility of Surface Fiducial Marker was analyzed from 2D Simulator, treatment plans and CyberKinfe images by using 8 Fiducial Markers made of gold attached to ATOM Phantom based on our institution's protocols. Results: The results of the estimated consistency were 0.87 and 0.9 at the oblique angle 45 and 315, respectively. For location consistency of Surface Fiducial Markers, values of horizontal vertical direction of left breast were Superior/Inferior 0.3 mm, Left/Right -0.3 mm, Anterior/Posterior 0.4 mm, and the values of rotational direction were Roll 0.3 °, Pitch 0.2 °, Yaw 0.4 °. The values of horizontal vertical direction of right breast were Superior/Inferior -0.1 mm, Left/Right -0.1 mm, Anterior/Posterior -0.1 mm, and the values of rotational direction were Roll 0.2°, Pitch 0.1°, Yaw 0.1°. Conclusions: We expect that the protocols used by Surface Fiducial Markers when performing Stereotactic Partial Breast Irradiation in CyberKnife will provide protection from pain and cut expenses for treatment and reduce treatment errors and make treatment more accurate by suggesting treatment protocols based on high consistency of Imaging Center and reproducibility of Fiducial Markers.

Evaluation of Spectral Band Adjustment Factor Applicability for Near Infrared Channel of Sentinel-2A Using Landsat-8 (Landsat-8을 활용한 Sentinel-2A Near Infrared 채널의 Spectral Band Adjustment Factor 적용성 평가)

  • Nayeon Kim;Noh-hun Seong;Daeseong Jung;Suyoung Sim;Jongho Woo;Sungwon Choi;Sungwoo Park;Kyung-Soo Han
    • Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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    • v.39 no.3
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    • pp.363-370
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    • 2023
  • Various earth observation satellites need to provide accurate and high-quality data after launch. To maintain and enhance the quality of satellite data, it is crucial to employ a cross-calibration process that accounts for differences in sensor characteristics, such as the spectral band adjustment factor (SBAF). In this study, we utilized Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2A satellite imagery collected from desert sites in Libya4, Algeria3, and Mauritania2 among pseudo-invariant calibration sites to calculate and apply SBAF, thereby compensating the uncertainties arising from variations in bandwidths. We quantitatively compared the reflectance differences based on the similarity of bandwidths, including Blue, Green, Red, and both the near-infrared (NIR) narrow, and NIR bands of Sentinel-2A. Following the application of SBAF, significant results with reflectance differences of approximately 1% or less were observed for all bands except NIR. In the case of the Sentinel-2A NIR band, it exhibited a significantly larger bandwidth difference compared to the NIR narrow band. However, after applying SBAF, the reflectance difference fell within the acceptable error range (5%) of 1-2%. It indicates that SBAF can be applied even when there is a substantial difference in the bandwidths of the two sensors, particularly in situations where satellite utilization is limited. Therefore, it was determined that SBAF could be applied even when the bandwidth difference between the two sensors is large in a situation where satellite utilization is limited. It is expected to be helpful in research utilizing the quality and continuity of satellite data.

A Thermal Time-Driven Dormancy Index as a Complementary Criterion for Grape Vine Freeze Risk Evaluation (포도 동해위험 판정기준으로서 온도시간 기반의 휴면심도 이용)

  • Kwon, Eun-Young;Jung, Jea-Eun;Chung, U-Ran;Lee, Seung-Jong;Song, Gi-Cheol;Choi, Dong-Geun;Yun, Jin-I.
    • Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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    • v.8 no.1
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    • pp.1-9
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    • 2006
  • Regardless of the recent observed warmer winters in Korea, more freeze injuries and associated economic losses are reported in fruit industry than ever before. Existing freeze-frost forecasting systems employ only daily minimum temperature for judging the potential damage on dormant flowering buds but cannot accommodate potential biological responses such as short-term acclimation of plants to severe weather episodes as well as annual variation in climate. We introduce 'dormancy depth', in addition to daily minimum temperature, as a complementary criterion for judging the potential damage of freezing temperatures on dormant flowering buds of grape vines. Dormancy depth can be estimated by a phonology model driven by daily maximum and minimum temperature and is expected to make a reasonable proxy for physiological tolerance of buds to low temperature. Dormancy depth at a selected site was estimated for a climatological normal year by this model, and we found a close similarity in time course change pattern between the estimated dormancy depth and the known cold tolerance of fruit trees. Inter-annual and spatial variation in dormancy depth were identified by this method, showing the feasibility of using dormancy depth as a proxy indicator for tolerance to low temperature during the winter season. The model was applied to 10 vineyards which were recently damaged by a cold spell, and a temperature-dormancy depth-freeze injury relationship was formulated into an exponential-saturation model which can be used for judging freeze risk under a given set of temperature and dormancy depth. Based on this model and the expected lowest temperature with a 10-year recurrence interval, a freeze risk probability map was produced for Hwaseong County, Korea. The results seemed to explain why the vineyards in the warmer part of Hwaseong County have been hit by more freeBe damage than those in the cooler part of the county. A dormancy depth-minimum temperature dual engine freeze warning system was designed for vineyards in major production counties in Korea by combining the site-specific dormancy depth and minimum temperature forecasts with the freeze risk model. In this system, daily accumulation of thermal time since last fall leads to the dormancy state (depth) for today. The regional minimum temperature forecast for tomorrow by the Korea Meteorological Administration is converted to the site specific forecast at a 30m resolution. These data are input to the freeze risk model and the percent damage probability is calculated for each grid cell and mapped for the entire county. Similar approaches may be used to develop freeze warning systems for other deciduous fruit trees.

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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