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Critique of an earlier article by Kuehn in 1962 suggesting that a particular factorial analysis of customer brand buying could predict with accuracy repurchase trends. Uses tables and mathematical formulae for emphasis of discussions. Sums up that the factorial analysis by Kuehn is satisfactory only as a result of artificial assumptions whereby variance is ignored within groups – but when this factor is taken into account the model fails to adequately fit the data of Snow Crop – frozen orange juice.

This paper aims to demonstrate the importance of taking into account precipitation and the vegetation response to it when trying to analyse changes of vegetation cover in drylands with high inter‐annual rainfall variability.

Linear regression models were used to determine trends in NDVI and precipitation and their interrelations for each pixel. Trends in NDVI that were entirely supported by precipitation trends were considered to impose climate‐induced vegetation change. Trends in NDVI that were not explained by trends in precipitation were considered to mark human‐induced vegetation change. Modelling results were validated by test of statistical significance and by comparison with the data from higher resolution satellites and fieldtrips to key test sites.

More than 26 percent of all vegetated area in Central Asia experienced significant changes during 1981‐2000. Rainfall has been proved to enforce most of these changes (21 percent of the entire vegetated area). The trends in vegetation activity driven by anthropogenic factor are much scarcer and occupy about 5.75 percent of the studied area.

Planners, decision makers and other interest groups can use the findings of the study for assessment and monitoring land performance/land degradation over dry regions.

The study demonstrates the importance of taking into account precipitation and the vegetation response to it when trying to analyse changes of vegetation cover in drylands with high inter‐annual rainfall variability.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the efficiency of individual branches of a large Greek bank through the application of both goal programming (GP) and data envelopment analysis (DEA).

The paper employs a particular least absolute deviations (LAD) technique (i.e. a special case of GP/constrained regression) and DEA as two performance measurement methods. The performance evaluation by means of GP is assessed utilizing two alternative conceptual (parametric functional form‐loglinear) models: one focusing on transaction and one on production efficiency. The DEA assessment using the transaction efficiency model is performed under the specifications of constant or variable returns to scale.

The two methods do provide confirmation of each other's findings. The results support the main claim that there is a strong relationship between the rankings obtained by GP and DEA. Moreover, the GP results indicate that there is a relationship between bank branch transaction and production efficiency.

The results may be of interest to stakeholder groups such as bank shareholders, managers, and regulatory authorities.

The paper is believed to be the first to examine the application of GP and DEA to measure the efficient use of resources of bank branches in Greece in terms of location (urban‐rural).

This paper aims to construct a model procedure to mitigate housing glut by using both qualitative and quantitative approach. The model applied in the Malaysian context analyzes the following: information contained in media articles and reports issued by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) on the housing market to extract the true picture of the housing glut issue; the relative impact (effectiveness) of housing affordability, housing prices and economic growth in influencing housing glut, and how it can be overcome so that appropriate preferential policies can be taken to mitigate the problem.

This study uses quarterly data from 2000 to 2017 to conduct economic analysis, economic theory analysis and cointegrating regression, whereas information from media-published housing articles and reports issued by BNM are examined and interpreted to draw the true picture of housing glut.

The results obtained from quantitative analysis show that housing affordability exerts very mild relative effect (0.0097) negatively on housing glut, whereas economic growth and housing price produce a relatively mild positive impact of (0.020) and (0.022), respectively, conflicting to the common consensus that the two factors have a significant effect on housing glut. Qualitatively, the results of this study show that housing glut seems to be relatively larger for affordable housing, which is contrary to the quantitative results, pointing to the existence of other influencing factors.

There is an imperative need for a third-party survey to gain a comprehensive understanding of the market conditions and buyers’ sentiment and preference.

This study compares both quantitative and qualitative results with expected housing market movements and responses based on conventional wisdom.

Introduction Since 1949, when the Chinese Communists took over the mainland China and the Nationalists fled to Taiwan, many changes have taken place in almost every respect on the island. Among the changes, the development of higher education has been one of the most noticeable. In 1945, when the island was first restored to the Nationalist Chinese from the Japanese, there were only four institutions of higher learning. All were publicly supported. Private colleges and universities had not been established prior to 1945 due to the suppressive colonial policy of the Japanese in Taiwan. In addition, students of native origin, with very few exceptions, were barred from entering law school or pursuing the social sciences. As a consequence, most of the students went into areas such as agriculture, engineering and medicine.

The tremendous and highly complex industrial development which went on with ever‐accelerating rapidity during the latter half of the nineteenth century brought the USA face‐to‐face at the beginning of the twentieth century with the very serious social problem of crime. This article examines whether there was any relationship at all between crime, unemployment and sales of alcohol and, if there was a relationship, whether the two domains shared two, as opposed to only one dimension and what the pattern of relationships were relating variables in one domain with those in the other.

This study aims to investigate the schedule deviation in road construction projects and the effect of project physical characteristics on schedule deviations. The study also addresses the main factors affecting time deviation in road construction projects.

The study is based on a sample of 101 road construction projects awarded in the West Bank in Palestine over the years 2010-2015. The study investigates the time deviation in total project duration and the deviations in major activities of road construction projects: earthworks, base works and asphalt works. Based on the collected data, regression models are developed to show the relation between actual duration and estimated duration. The study also investigates the effect of project physical characteristics on time deviation through regression analysis. The considered characteristics are: project size, terrain conditions, ground conditions and soil quality. To identify the main factors affecting time deviation, a survey of 40 contractors and 30 consultants was performed.

The study reveals the following: average of time deviations in earthworks = 46.48 per cent, average of time deviation in base works = 29.66 per cent, average of time deviation in asphalt works = 23.43 per cent and average of time deviation in total duration = 47.72 per cent. Regression models that investigate the effect of physical project characteristics (i.e. project size, terrain condition, ground condition and soil quality) on time deviation are discussed. The survey reveals that the top five factors affecting delay in road construction projects are political situation, payments delay by the owner, lack of coordination between construction parties, frequent change orders and unexpected ground condition and terrain.

This study investigates the schedule deviation in road construction projects and the effect of project physical characteristics on schedule deviations. The study also addresses the main factors affecting time deviation in road construction projects. The study is based on field data collected from 101 road construction projects and a questionnaire survey conducted in the West Bank in Palestine. Based on the findings, a number of recommendations are formulated to control the problem of time deviation in construction projects. Although this study is specific to the country of Palestine, its results can be applicable to other developing countries facing similar problems in their public construction sectors.

In this chapter we explore different ways to obtain decompositions of rank-dependent indices of socioeconomic inequality of health, such as the Concentration Index. Our focus is on the regression-based type of decomposition. Depending on whether the regression explains the health variable, or the socioeconomic variable, or both, a different decomposition formula is generated. We illustrate the differences using data from the Ethiopia 2011 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS).

The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of deviation from the target investment in working capital (WC) (measured by net trade cycle (NTC)) on the profitability (measured by gross operating income (GOI) and net operating income (NOI)) of the listed non-financial Indian firms.

The study is based on the data collected on NTC, GOI, NOI and other variables pertaining to 242 listed non-financial Indian firms that form part of the Bombay Stock exchange 500 Index for the period 2012–2017 (1,452 firm-year observations). Following Banos-Caballero et al. (2010), the authors use a firm fixed effect regression as the benchmark regression for finding out the determinants of NTC of the sample firms. Furthermore, this study explores the impact of deviation (above and below target) from the target investments in WC on the firm profitability (GOI and NOI) employing fixed effect regression.

The result of this study reveals that Indian firms maintain a target NTC and try to converge in case of any deviations to it. Furthermore, the profitability of the sample firms was observed to be influenced by the deviation from the target NTC irrespective of whether the deviation was above or below the target investment level in WC.

This study highlights the importance of good WC management for firms due to the negative impact of the over- and under-investments in WC and contributes to the existing body of knowledge by suggesting that managers should keep close to the target WC and not deviate from this in order to maximize the firms’ profitability.

To the best of the knowledge of the researchers, this is perhaps the first study to examine the impact of firms’ deviation from their target investment in WC on the profitability for non-financial firms listed and operating in India.

The issue of export instability exerts an enduring fascination for economists with an interest in the area of economic development. Over several decades a voluminous literature has emerged embracing debates on the domestic consequences and on the causes of export instability. The purpose here is to examine these debates and an attempt is made to set out different theoretical stances, to classify and examine empirical findings, and to indicate the directions in which the debates have moved. Such a statement of a review article's purpose is, of course, incomplete without more specific delineation of the boundaries within which the general objectives are pursued. Here that delineation has three facets.