Communities of practice (CoP), once mostly informal, has become formal with the growing presence of knowledge management (KM) in the business sector; so has the interest in CoP. Since the early 2000s, the research interest has thus far grown. At a point in time has the subject, CoP, been researched for ten years, it is significant to review the literatures, the main topics as well as critical factors on the subject. In this study, the trends in the relevant researches and the performance factors from the previous studies are examined. The references for this study are limited to the authorized scholarly and scientific journals. The results therethrough processed show that total 37 researches were conducted between the year 2000 and 2012. These could be classified by the research methods as 16 case studies, 11 studies using CoP as the dependent variable, 4 studies using CoP as an independent variable and 3 theoretical discourses. 7 out of 16 case studies suggest the 14 success factors of CoP; the most influential performance factor is the external community support. 11 studies examined factors influencing the performance of CoP; 13 performance factors were proposed in these studies. The most significant factor influencing the performance of CoP is the team effectiveness.