• Journal of the Korean Society of Floral Art and Design
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• no.44
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• pp.75-100
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• 2021

The purpose of this study is to explore ways in which the flower design industry can utilize podcasts that are rapidly growing in recent years. I selected foreign flower podcasts that are ranked on the global podcast chart, and examined the genre, content, components, show hosts and etc. By analyzing the characteristics of the podcast, the type of communication between the host and the audience, the audience interaction, the industry connection, and the media expansion strategy, I tried to derive the possibility of the flower podcast in Korea. As a result of analyzing foreign flower podcasts, podcasters built listener communities based on their rich experience and knowledge through podcasts and used them for education and marketing. They acted as leaders in the industry or led public opinion such as the sustainable flower industry. Podcast shows were repurposed as various content and used to spread flower design culture. In Korea, flower podcasts can be the basis for the formation of a community related to the flower design industry. Flower design experts can use podcasts as a source asset for various content. Listeners within the industry can get hands-on knowledge about the business from flower podcasts. The popular flower podcast will contribute to the vitalization of flower design culture and industry. Flower podcasts can be a starting point to actively cope with the era of personal media.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.33-51
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• 2022

Purpose: The online market is growing the most in history due to the expansion of non-face-to-face commerce. In addition, as consumers' interest in health, food safety, and environment increases, interest in and consumption of eco-friendly agricultural products is also increasing. Therefore, in the case of a specialty store that sells eco-friendly organic agricultural products, a marketing strategy that can increase customer loyalty by reflecting these consumer needs is necessary. In this study, the store attributes of eco-friendly food stores are classified into location, assortment, price, quality, and employee service, and the effect of each store attribute on utilitarian and hedonic value is investigated. Research design, data, and methodology: The subjects of this study were customers who visited an eco-friendly food store. Of the 511 survey responses, 311 were used for statistical verification, excluding 200 who had not visited within the last 3 months. For statistical analysis, Smart PLS 3.0 was used, and after checking the validity and reliability of the items, hypothesis testing was performed. Result: As a result of the study, it was found that assortment, quality, and employee service among store attributes had a positive (+) effect on utilitarian and hedonic value. Second, location had no significant effect on utilitarian and hedonic value. Third, price did not appear to have a positive (+) effect on the utilitarian value, and it was found to have a positive (+) effect on the hedonic value. Fourth, It was investigated whether the presence or absence of delivery service had an effect on store attributes between utilitarian and hedonic value, and it was found that there was a significant effect between employee service and hedonic value. Conclusions: Among eco-friendly food store environment management will be required in order to provide food that meets the tastes and needs of consumers by diversifying the taste, standard, and quality grade of food, and to maintain or improve the quality. In order to unlike other stores, eco-friendly food stores have high price resistance from the point of view of consumers, so it is necessary to diversify promotional media such as YouTube and SNS to raise awareness of eco-friendly organic food.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.71-86
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• 2023

The purpose of this exploratory study is to compare the differences in public perceptual characteristics of Korean and Chinese societies regarding the metaverse using big data analysis. Due to the environmental impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, technological progress, and the expansion of new consumer bases such as generation Z and Alpha, the world's interest in the metaverse is drawing attention, and related academic studies have been also in full swing from 2021. In particular, Korea and China have emerged as major leading countries in the metaverse industry. It is a timely research question to discover the difference in social awareness using big data accumulated in both countries at a time when the amount of mentions on the metaverse has skyrocketed. The analysis technique identifies the importance of key words by analyzing word frequency, N-gram, and TF-IDF of clean data through text mining analysis, and analyzes the density and centrality of semantic networks to determine the strength of connection between words and their semantic relevance. Python 3.9 Anaconda data science platform 3 and Textom 6 versions were used, and UCINET 6.759 analysis and visualization were performed for semantic network analysis and structural CONCOR analysis. As a result, four blocks, each of which are similar word groups, were driven. These blocks represent different perspectives that reflect the types of social perceptions of the metaverse in both countries. Studies on the metaverse are increasing, but studies on comparative research approaches between countries from a cross-cultural aspect have not yet been conducted. At this point, as a preceding study, this study will be able to provide theoretical grounds and meaningful insights to future studies.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2022.10a
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• pp.321-321
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• 2022

Wheat was brought to solve food scarcity with aid from the United States caused by the Korean War. The Korean government launched a campaign to encourage mixed rice and wheat meals due to shortage of rice production in the 1960s, Wheat consumption began in earnest. However, it is difficult to rebuild the domestic wheat production base devastated by the Korean War with the technology at the time. Thus, wheat was mainly consumed from imported in the past. Since then, as wheat consumption has increased due to westernization and diversification of dietary life, wheat became the second staple grain in Korea. In this situation, the government enacted the Wheat Industry Promotion Act to create a basis for sustainable production and consumption of wheat in Korea. This study sought to improve the self-sufficiency of domestic wheat by examining the possibility of using "Ariheuk", a variety of new Korean wheat, as a rice supplement in the same context as the govemment's policy. Wheat has been used as a raw material for the processed food, such as noodles and bread. However, we approached it by using whole wheat as a nutritional grain. Participants were recruited from the agri-food consumer panel conducted by Rural Development Administration. We set a final sample of 525 consumer panels based on the age of census household heads. The experiment was conducted in such a way that participants cooked and ate 100% rice meal and rice containing 20% whole wheat meal. Participants completed the sensory evaluation questionnaire with online. For this experiment, all participants were given same whole wheat product. The sensory evaluation questionnaire consisted of color, glossiness, stickiness, aroma, chewing, sweetness, nuttiness, chewiness, softness, bursting, flavor, texture and swallowability. The sensory evaluation results were analyzed by giving -3 points to +3 points. The former points were given to the response that 100% rice meal is very superior to the response that rice containing 20% whole wheat meal. The latter points were given vice versa. Zero point was given to the response that they are similar each other. As a result, rice with 20% whole wheat meal was better than 100% rice meal in terms of color, aroma, chewiness, bursting and flavor. In case of sweetness and glossiness, there didn't exist significantly different. On the other hands, 100% rice meal was better in terms of softness and swallowability. As a result of ANOVA by age groups, from 30s or younger to 60s or more, there was significant difference among the groups in terms of color, chewiness and bursting. As a result of post-hoc analysis with Duncan's multiple range test (p < 0.05), 50s were evaluated to be significantly superior in color, chewiness and bursting compared to other age groups. In conclusion, it is appropriate to use whole wheat as a supplement to rice in order to improve the self-sufficiency of domestic wheat. As a strategy to promote domestic wheat consumption, in case of Ariheuk, it is necessary to provide an experience through whole wheat tasting and to establish a marketing strategy segmented by age groups.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.249-257
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• 2023

In this paper, we propose ways how portal site POI(Point-of-Interest) contents by analyzing the effect of portal site POI contents attributes on favorability, satisfaction, and visit intention, and to propose a strategic marketing plan using portal site POI contents in restaurants. In this study, a survey was conducted on 300 people who had experience using portal site POI contents. Through prior research, the portal site POI contents attributes were classified into accuracy, authority, aesthetics, and currency. To verify the research hypothesis, single regression analysis and multiple regression analysis were conducted to confirm the relationship between variables. To summarize the core research results, first, the portal site POI contents attribute showed a positive relationship with favorability. Second, it was found that the portal site POI contents attribute had a positive relationship with satisfaction. Third, it was found that favorability had an effect on satisfaction. Fourth, it was found that favorability had an effect on the visit intention. Fifth, satisfaction was found to have an effect on the visit intention. Based on the analysis results, in order to induce customer visits in restaurants, it is necessary to make good use of portal site POI contents to increase user favorability and to allow users to visit stores.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.165-170
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• 2024

'K-contents' is in the spotlight worldwide. As the prefix 'K' became popular, interest in K-food(Korean food) also increased. Various studies on K-contents are being conducted, but research on K-food is still very limited. References and articles about K-food are mainly limited to the overseas expansion, marketing status, and sales of domestic brands, and a few research papers deal with only cases of a specific brand's overseas expansion. This paper aims to analyze how K-food is represented in TV unscripted shows and TV series produced in Korea and what their effects are through empirical works. Among the unscripted shows based on food, they are estimated that the point of competitiveness as K contents deal with foreigners' Korean food experiences. Representative examples here are the way foreigners who visit Korea experience Korean food as part of their Korean culture experience, or the type of temporarily setting up a restaurant overseas to sell Korean food to local people. However, the problem with such shows are that it lacks long-term appeal because it is based on the 'Gukbbong(a slang term for 'extreme nationalism')' sentiment. The exposure of K-food in K-contents creates a tremendous advertising effect. It is judged that the current status and analysis of K-contents based on K-food can help establish the direction of future program production and the identity of K-food.

• Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.59-88
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• 2008

Digital Convergence means integration between industry, technology, and contents, and in marketing, it usually comes with creation of new types of product and service under the base of digital technology as digitalization progress in electro-communication industries including telecommunication, home appliance, and computer industries. One can see digital convergence not only in instruments such as PC, AV appliances, cellular phone, but also in contents, network, service that are required in production, modification, distribution, re-production of information. Convergence in contents started around 1990. Convergence in network and service begins as broadcasting and telecommunication integrates and DMB(digital multimedia broadcasting), born in May, 2005 is the symbolic icon in this trend. There are some positive and negative expectations about DMB. The reason why two opposite expectations exist is that DMB does not come out from customer's need but from technology development. Therefore, customers might have hard time to interpret the real meaning of DMB. Time is quite critical to a high tech product, like DMB because another product with same function from different technology can replace the existing product within short period of time. If DMB does not positioning well to customer's mind quickly, another products like Wibro, IPTV, or HSPDA could replace it before it even spreads out. Therefore, positioning strategy is critical for success of DMB product. To make correct positioning strategy, one needs to understand how consumer interprets DMB and how consumer's interpretation can be changed via communication strategy. In this study, we try to investigate how consumer perceives a new product, like DMB and how AD strategy change consumer's perception. More specifically, the paper segment consumers into sub-groups based on their DMB perceptions and compare their characteristics in order to understand how they perceive DMB. And, expose them different printed ADs that have messages guiding consumer think DMB in specific ways, either cellular phone or personal TV. Research Question 1: Segment consumers according to perceptions about DMB and compare characteristics of segmentations. Research Question 2: Compare perceptions about DMB after AD that induces categorization of DMB in direction for each segment. If one understand and predict a direction in which consumer perceive a new product, firm can select target customers easily. We segment consumers according to their perception and analyze characteristics in order to find some variables that can influence perceptions, like prior experience, usage, or habit. And then, marketing people can use this variables to identify target customers and predict their perceptions. If one knows how customer's perception is changed via AD message, communication strategy could be constructed properly. Specially, information from segmented customers helps to develop efficient AD strategy for segment who has prior perception. Research framework consists of two measurements and one treatment, O1 X O2. First observation is for collecting information about consumer's perception and their characteristics. Based on first observation, the paper segment consumers into two groups, one group perceives DMB similar to Cellular phone and the other group perceives DMB similar to TV. And compare characteristics of two segments in order to find reason why they perceive DMB differently. Next, we expose two kinds of AD to subjects. One AD describes DMB as Cellular phone and the other Ad describes DMB as personal TV. When two ADs are exposed to subjects, consumers don't know their prior perception of DMB, in other words, which subject belongs 'similar-to-Cellular phone' segment or 'similar-to-TV' segment? However, we analyze the AD's effect differently for each segment. In research design, final observation is for investigating AD effect. Perception before AD is compared with perception after AD. Comparisons are made for each segment and for each AD. For the segment who perceives DMB similar to TV, AD that describes DMB as cellular phone could change the prior perception. And AD that describes DMB as personal TV, could enforce the prior perception. For data collection, subjects are selected from undergraduate students because they have basic knowledge about most digital equipments and have open attitude about a new product and media. Total number of subjects is 240. In order to measure perception about DMB, we use indirect measurement, comparison with other similar digital products. To select similar digital products, we pre-survey students and then finally select PDA, Car-TV, Cellular Phone, MP3 player, TV, and PSP. Quasi experiment is done at several classes under instructor's allowance. After brief introduction, prior knowledge, awareness, and usage about DMB as well as other digital instruments is asked and their similarities and perceived characteristics are measured. And then, two kinds of manipulated color-printed AD are distributed and similarities and perceived characteristics for DMB are re-measured. Finally purchase intension, AD attitude, manipulation check, and demographic variables are asked. Subjects are given small gift for participation. Stimuli are color-printed advertising. Their actual size is A4 and made after several pre-test from AD professionals and students. As results, consumers are segmented into two subgroups based on their perceptions of DMB. Similarity measure between DMB and cellular phone and similarity measure between DMB and TV are used to classify consumers. If subject whose first measure is less than the second measure, she is classified into segment A and segment A is characterized as they perceive DMB like TV. Otherwise, they are classified as segment B, who perceives DMB like cellular phone. Discriminant analysis on these groups with their characteristics of usage and attitude shows that Segment A knows much about DMB and uses a lot of digital instrument. Segment B, who thinks DMB as cellular phone doesn't know well about DMB and not familiar with other digital instruments. So, consumers with higher knowledge perceive DMB similar to TV because launching DMB advertising lead consumer think DMB as TV. Consumers with less interest on digital products don't know well about DMB AD and then think DMB as cellular phone. In order to investigate perceptions of DMB as well as other digital instruments, we apply Proxscal analysis, Multidimensional Scaling technique at SPSS statistical package. At first step, subjects are presented 21 pairs of 7 digital instruments and evaluate similarity judgments on 7 point scale. And for each segment, their similarity judgments are averaged and similarity matrix is made. Secondly, Proxscal analysis of segment A and B are done. At third stage, get similarity judgment between DMB and other digital instruments after AD exposure. Lastly, similarity judgments of group A-1, A-2, B-1, and B-2 are named as 'after DMB' and put them into matrix made at the first stage. Then apply Proxscal analysis on these matrixes and check the positional difference of DMB and after DMB. The results show that map of segment A, who perceives DMB similar as TV, shows that DMB position closer to TV than to Cellular phone as expected. Map of segment B, who perceive DMB similar as cellular phone shows that DMB position closer to Cellular phone than to TV as expected. Stress value and R-square is acceptable. And, change results after stimuli, manipulated Advertising show that AD makes DMB perception bent toward Cellular phone when Cellular phone-like AD is exposed, and that DMB positioning move towards Car-TV which is more personalized one when TV-like AD is exposed. It is true for both segment, A and B, consistently. Furthermore, the paper apply correspondence analysis to the same data and find almost the same results. The paper answers two main research questions. The first one is that perception about a new product is made mainly from prior experience. And the second one is that AD is effective in changing and enforcing perception. In addition to above, we extend perception change to purchase intention. Purchase intention is high when AD enforces original perception. AD that shows DMB like TV makes worst intention. This paper has limitations and issues to be pursed in near future. Methodologically, current methodology can't provide statistical test on the perceptual change, since classical MDS models, like Proxscal and correspondence analysis are not probability models. So, a new probability MDS model for testing hypothesis about configuration needs to be developed. Next, advertising message needs to be developed more rigorously from theoretical and managerial perspective. Also experimental procedure could be improved for more realistic data collection. For example, web-based experiment and real product stimuli and multimedia presentation could be employed. Or, one can display products together in simulated shop. In addition, demand and social desirability threats of internal validity could influence on the results. In order to handle the threats, results of the model-intended advertising and other "pseudo" advertising could be compared. Furthermore, one can try various level of innovativeness in order to check whether it make any different results (cf. Moon 2006). In addition, if one can create hypothetical product that is really innovative and new for research, it helps to make a vacant impression status and then to study how to form impression in more rigorous way.

• Journal of Distribution Research
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.1-19
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• 2010

As having the movement of developing private brand (PB) goods, domestic big retailers are facing up with new problems. Thus, it is required studies of PB products, and how consumers recognize PB products as a consideration commodity set. Also, it is worthy in order that it gives us the important meaning on the marketing strategy with focusing on evaluating the differences between customers buying PB grocery goods with respect to demographic characteristics and purchasing behaviors. PB has some advantages for customers and retailers. However, according to AC Nielson's report (2005), Asian and emerging market has 1/5 sales relatively to Western countries. But we can assume that the emerging market has the most potential growth through this result. As a result from several other studies, it becomes necessary to not only increase the rate of selling composition of PB product temporarily, but also analyze the characteristics of customers using big retailers and segmenting customer groups to make PB product as a consideration commodity set for them. In addition, it is needed to have a variety of acts of marketing. From studies related to PB, there is a prejudice - cheap products have low quality - but, evaluation by customers who have used those products shows neutral stand, and there is a study representing that it is the most important to accumulate the belief between the retailers selling PB products and consumers using those for the accurate evaluation and intention on purchasing. Also, by the result from analyzing the characteristics of customers buying PB products, we could assume that higher income and higher education level, more preference on PB products. Especially, according to TNS's research, the primary targets of PB product are 30's who seeks value for money and planned spending habits, and 40's who have teenager children, and are interested in encouraging themselves. This paper used Probit model to analyze the characteristics of consumers. This model helps us to analyze with the variables representing the demographic characteristics of consumers (gender, age, educational level, occupation, income level, living area), and variables related to purchasing behavior (visiting frequency on big retailers, the average amount that they pay for goods in there, and check-up which brand made those goods). The method we used in this study is by man to man interview and survey on-line with the rate of 89% and 11% in Seoul and Gyunggi Province, respectively, for about one month from the beginning of February, 2008. As a result of this, under the assumption that people buy PB products more as long as they go shopping more, it was not meaningful for target groups which we pointed out as frequently visiting customers to be. Although, we have expected women buy more PB products than men do, gender doesn't mean anything for the result. And, it has inferred that married people buy more PB goods than singles do. It was also meaningless with variables related to occupation. Because housewives are often exposed to any kind of supermarket than workers are, we could not get any relatives. Moreover, we couldn't proof that younger generation prefer big retailers more than older people who 50~60's. Education levels doesn't affect on the purchase of PB product as well. Related to living area, the result is statistically not similar as we expected whether living in Seoul or not. It shows there is no relationship with the preference on retail brands and PB products, and it is similar with the study researched by TNS(2008) that customers tend to buy PB product impulsively no matter which brand it is and where they are even though their shopping place is the big market where customers are often using. Variables on which we had meaningful results are income level and living place. That is, customers who have 3,000,000~6,000,000 WON every month on average are more willing to buy PB products than other customers whose income is over 6,000,000 WON, and residents not living in Seoul prefer PB goods than those who are living in Seoul. To explain more about what we got, if there is only one condition about customer's visiting frequency on big retails, we could come up with this result that more exposed to PB products, more purchasing frequency. Consequently, it brings the important insight that large retailers have to prepare something to make customers visit them often to increase selling rate of PB products. To demonstrate the result of analyzing more, what is more efficient variables are demographically including marital status, income level, and residential area to buy items that affect the PB products and could include the frequency of visiting large markets by the purchase habits. Specifically, then, married couples rather than singles, middle-income customers than high-income customers, and local residents not living in Seoul than customers in Seoul are more likely to purchase PB goods. In addition, as long as a customer visits two times more, then the purchasing rate of PB products is to increase over 5.3%. Therefore, it seems that retailers are better to make a shopping place as fun and comfortable places. With overwhelming the idea that PB products are just cheap, one-time purchase goods, it is needed to increase the loyalty on those goods like NB products, try to make PB products as a consideration products set, and occur to sustainable sales. Especially, as suggested by this paper, it seems like it strongly needs to identify the characteristics of customers who prefer PB, to segment those customers, and to select the main target, and to do positioning with well-planned marketing strategies. Then, it is able to give us a meaningful point on marketing strategy by developing the field of PB study, identifying the difference of life style and shopping habits of customers.

• KOREAN JOURNAL OF CROP SCIENCE
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• v.62 no.4
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• pp.275-284
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• 2017

Rice quality should be considered as a primary consumer requirement. Regarding marketing, characteristics such as appearance, physicochemical properties, and palatability of brand rice are of high economic importance. Therefore, this study was conducted to select the optimal rice cultivars representing the commercial rice brands of Gyeongsangbuk-do province in Korea. Various rice grain quality components, grain appearance, several physicochemical properties of rice grain, and texture or palatability of cooked rice grains of ten cultivars (namely 'top quality rice') cultivated at three different locations, such as inland mountainous and southern plain areas of Gyeongsangbuk-do province in 2013~2014, were evaluated, and the obtained data was analyzed. 'Hiami' showed slightly higher protein contents and lower palatability of cooked rice than the other rice cultivars. Rice production and head rice yield produced at Gumi were the highest. The protein content of milled rice produced at Andong, an inland mountainous region, was approximately 0.3% point lower than that from other locations, whereas the amylose content of milled rice was approximately 1% point higher than those from the other plain regions, Daegu and Gumi. We evaluated the texture, Glossiness value determined using a Toyo teste meter and palatability of cooked rice of ten cultivars. The hardness of cooked rice produced in Andong was slightly lower than that produced in Daegu and Gumi, and additionally, the palatability of cooked rice produced in Andong was the best, followed by that producted in Gumi and Daegu. Considering rice yield and grain quality in the major rice cultivation areas of Gyeongsangbuk-do province, the rice cultivars that may be suitable for each region could be recommended mid-late maturation: 'Younghojinmi' and 'Mipum' in Daegu, 'Daebo', 'Samgwang', Chilbo' and 'Younghojinmi' in Gumi, 'Samgwang', 'Jinsumi' and 'Sukwang' in Andong. These results obtained in this study imply that the selected cultivars with high yield and quality could be recommended with high priority to rice farmers in the regions.

• 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.