Like other academicians, MIS researchers have boundary-less careers that rely more on personal drive than affiliated institution to develop career competencies and achieve career success. Unlike other fields, maintaining career success in the MIS academic community requires frequent update to the research themes to maintain relevance to the professional and academic community. As such, adapting expertise and building social relationships is instrumental for career success. In this study, we explore how faculty who know why, know how and know with whom are successful in advancing their careers; while faculty who do not master these three competencies have limited success and impose social closure on themselves and are incapable of exploiting resources to their advantage. Based on the findings, we advance a number of theoretical propositions to guide future research on the effect of the three types of knowing on academic careers. Scopus