Abstract
This article describes the findings from a study of the patterns of individual-level knowledge flows at Icon Medialab, a high-growth internet consultancy with multinational operations, and the impact of those patterns on individual performance. Building on the knowledge-based view of the firm literature, and specifically the work concerned with communities of practice, a series of propositions linking various sources of knowledge (internal vs. external, tacit vs. codified) to individual performance are developed. Using data collected from 203 employees at Icon Medialab, it is found that creativity is associated with social contact and internet-based sources such as electronic communities, while on-time delivery of results is associated with the use of codified internal sources and negatively related to the use of internetbased sources. Implications for community of practice theory, and for practice, are discussed.