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Determining the number of circulating kanban cards is important in order effectively to operate a just‐in‐time with kanban production system. While a number of techniques exist for setting the number of kanbans, artificial neural networks (ANNs) and classification and regression trees (CARTs) represent two practical approaches with special capabilities for operationalizing the kanban setting problem. This paper provides a comparison of ANNs with CART for setting the number of kanbans in a dynamically varying production environment. Our results show that both methods are comparable in terms of accuracy and response speed, but that CARTs have advantages in terms of explainability and development speed. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of using these techniques in an operational setting.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model of the relative performance of open source software (OSS) projects.

This paper evaluates the relative performance of OSS projects by evaluating multiple project inputs and multiple project outputs by using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model. The DEA model produces an efficiency score for each project based on project inputs and outputs. The method of producing an efficiency score is based on the convex envelopment technology structure. The efficiency measure quantifies a “distance” to an efficient frontier.

The DEA model produced an index of corresponding intensities linking an inefficient project to its benchmark efficient project(s). The inefficiency measures produced an ordering of inefficient projects. Eight projects were found to be “efficient” and used as benchmarking projects.

This research is limited to only security‐based OSS projects. Future research on other areas of OSS projects is warranted.

The result of this research is a practical model that can be used by OSS project developers to evaluate the relative performance of their projects and make resource decisions.

This research extends the work of previous studies that have examined the relative performance of software development projects in a traditional development environment. As a result of this research, OSS projects can now be adequately benchmarked and evaluated according to project performance. An OSS project manger can effectively use these results to critically evaluate resources for their project and judge the relative efficiency of the resources.

Conceptual arguments favouring a relational rather than a transactional approach to the study of buyer‐seller relationships are now well understood. However, attempts to quantify the factors contributing towards relationship quality have been held back by the complexity of the underlying factors and their interrelatedness. Traditional regression techniques are not effective in analysing data with high levels of multi‐collinearity and missing information, typical in many studies of buyer behaviour. Makes use of a relatively new technique – neural network analysis – to try to quantify the factors contributing to buyer‐seller relationship quality. The technique uses a statistically‐based learning procedure modelled on the workings of the human brain which quantifies the relationship between input and output variables through an intermediate “hidden” variable level analogous to the brain. For this study, a neural network was developed with two outcome components of relationship quality (relationship satisfaction and trust), and five input antecedents (the salesperson′s sales orientation, customer orientation, expertise, ethics and the relationship′s duration). In a comparison of multiple regression and neural network techniques, the latter was found to give statistically more significant outcomes. New applications within marketing for neural network analysis are being found. Contributes towards the development of the technique and suggests a number of further possible applications.

Mr John Reeves has become product manager with Burrell Colours Ltd at Burrell House, 44 Broadway, London E15 1XN.

This study aims to deepen the understanding of the challenges and implications entailed by deploying mobile clinics in conflict zones to reach populations affected by violence and cut off from health-care services.

This research combines an integrated literature review and an instrumental case study. The literature review comprises two targeted reviews to provide insights: one on conflict zones and one on mobile clinics. The case study describes the process and challenges faced throughout a mobile clinic deployment during and after the Iraq War. The data was gathered using mixed methods over a two-year period (2017–2018).

Armed conflicts directly impact the populations’ health and access to health care. Mobile clinic deployments are often used and recommended to provide health-care access to vulnerable populations cut off from health-care services. However, there is a dearth of peer-reviewed literature documenting decision support tools for mobile clinic deployments.

This study highlights the gaps in the literature and provides direction for future research to support the development of valuable insights and decision support tools for practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate self-perceived age among Baby Boomers in the UK, Germany, Japan, and Hungary, and identifies two horizontal segments based on the way consumers view their age.

Questionnaires were used to sample 880 Baby Boomers. Structural equation modeling is used to investigate multinational measurement invariance of the cognitive age scale.

Two distinct segments are identified, providing support for a young-at-heart consumer culture in all nations in the study. Results also find cognitive age to exhibit partial measurement invariance, which is expected given the disparate nations under study.

This research contributes to cross-cultural global age research which is still in an early pioneering stage. The study builds on a small number of previous studies that validate cognitive age, extends current knowledge of the measurement properties of cognitive age, and identifies two distinct international segments of Baby Boomers. Further research needs to delve into the antecedents of self-perceived age, particularly in the ways in which different life experiences and cultures may impact age identities.

The study has implications for marketing managers wishing to target the increasingly important young-at-heart Baby Boomer.

The study uses four non-American countries, uses samples matched for chronological age, and does not use convenience samples, which make it unique in the cognitive age literature. The study has value for marketing managers, global age researchers, and consumer culture researchers.

At a recent meeting of the Glasgow Grocers' and Provision Merchants' Association, it was alleged that there are provision merchants in Glasgow who are doing a large business in selling margarine as butter at 1s. 2d. per pound. In commenting upon this statement The Grocer very properly urges that the officials of the Association referred to should take prompt steps to place the facts in their possession before the Glasgow authorities and their officers, and observes that in certain cities and towns—Birmingham, for example—the grocers' associations have co‐operated with the authorities in their efforts to suppress illegal trading, particularly in regard to the sale of margarine as butter. It appears that one of the members of the Glasgow Association expressed the opinion that the Margarine Act has been a failure and that shopkeepers who sell margarine as butter should be charged with obtaining money under false pretences.