This study focuses on the mediating role of creativity on the knowledge management process. To confirm focal hypotheses, we conducted survey on 538 employees of foreign subsidiaries of global enterprises. Main findings are: first, creativity turned out to positively mediate the effect of knowledge transfer on the firm’s performance; second, the mediating role of creativity differs depending on the domain of acquiring knowledge such as exploitation and exploration. This research found that the influence of exploitative knowledge on knowledge creation and innovative performance was stronger. As such, among tension view and foundational view, which are two competing views on the relationship between knowledge and creativity, the latter is more soundly supported.