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The purpose of this study is to explore and explain, through practical considerations, the ever-increasing presence of local option sales taxes and “special purpose” local option sales taxes (SPLOST) in the composition of the tax portfolio of local governments.

This research is designed as a case study of county-level fiscal trends in Washington counties between 1990 and 2018. Data were collected for all 39 Washington counties for 29 years in three domains: revenue, crime and society. Observations were fitted to longitudinal models for tests of cointegration or trend, or to cross-sectional regression models for tests of predictive quality.

This study shows that the stated “special purpose” does not influence a county’s decision to impose a SPLOST. Furthermore, this study finds that indicators of educational attainment, income, poverty, unemployment and rural areas are the largest predictors of a county’s propensity to change the composition of its revenue portfolio in favor of the sales tax.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to explore whether indicators of a stated “special purpose” are statistically related to a county’s propensity to adopt a particular SPLOST. This study concludes that a county’s decision to adopt a SPLOST does not depend on the stated “special purpose.” In addition, it shows that urbanized counties with higher per capita income and education levels, but lower unemployment and poverty, can predictably import sales tax revenue from neighboring jurisdictions. This is a significant finding as it may explain why SPLOST is gaining popularity.

The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of nano hydroxyapatite (HA) and graphene oxide (GO) particles on thermal and mechanical performances of 3D printed poly(ε-caprolactone) (PCL) filaments used in bone tissue engineering (BTE).

Raw materials were prepared by melt blending, followed by 3D printing via 3D Discovery (regenHU Ltd., CH) with all fabricating parameters kept constant. Filaments, including pure PCL, PCL/HA and PCL/GO, were tested under the same conditions. Several techniques were used to mechanically, thermally and microstructurally evaluate properties of these filaments, including differential scanning calorimetry, tensile test, nano indentation and scanning electron microscope.

Results show that both HA and GO nano particles are capable of improving mechanical performance of PCL. Enhanced mechanical properties of PCL/HA result from reinforcing effect of HA, while a different mechanism is observed in PCL/GO, where degree of crystallinity plays an important role. In addition, GO is more efficient at enhancing mechanical performance of PCL compared with HA.

For the first time, a systematic study about effects of nano HA and GO particles on bioactive scaffolds produced by additive manufacturing for BTE applications is conducted in this work. Mechanical and thermal behaviors of each sample, pure PCL, PCL/HA and PCL/GO, are reported, correlated and compared with literature.

This study aims to delve into the relationship between open innovation and organizational effectiveness, expanding upon previous research that primarily focused on the impact of open innovation on firm performance.

Based on data collected from top- and middle-level managers across diverse sectors in India, the authors examined the intricate dynamics of open innovation and its effects on organizational effectiveness. The authors took two approaches to examine the data; using structural equation modeling and using the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) approach.

This empirical evidence underscores the potential advantages of adopting open innovation practices within organizations. The contribution extends to both theoretical and practical domains.

Theoretically, this research enriches the literature on open innovation and organizational effectiveness by providing empirical substantiation for their interconnection.

From a practical perspective, the findings offer actionable insights for practitioners and organizational leaders, suggesting that embracing open innovation can significantly enhance organizational effectiveness, ultimately fostering improved performance and competitiveness. The findings also have implications for external stakeholders aiming to engage with innovation-driven organizations for purposes of commercialization and knowledge exchange.

This study advocates for incorporating inbound and outbound open innovation practices within strategic decision-making processes to achieve organizational effectiveness.