National Sun Yat-Sen University (NSYSU), Kaoshing, Taiwan, and the Taiwan Government recently awarded Balaji Rajagopalan, associate professor, MIS, and faculty director of SBA graduate programs and research for the SBA’s Center for Integrated Business Research and Education, a grant to continue his a collaborative research project titled "Effects of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation on Individuals, Knowledge-Sharing Behavior in Virtual Communities – A Study of Taiwan-Based Virtual Communities.” The study supports a visit to NSYSU where he will also explore opportunities for synergies between the SBA’s MBA program and the NSYSU international MBA program.  

This particular study will develop a model that classifies motivation factors into two dimensions –  intrinsic and extrinsic – to investigate how these factors can explain an individual’s knowledge-sharing behavior in virtual communities. And more importantly the contextual factors that shape the influence of these two types of motivations.