Abstract:   Abstract: The enterprise intellectual capital in 1990’s is the latest theory about enterprise competitive sources. Nahapiet and Ghoshal proposed the formation mechanism of intellectual capital from the perspective of enterprise social capital, however, there is no verification that has been done by scholars. Here, a theory framework is refined to research on enterprise intellectual capital formation mechanism from social capital perspective, which will further boost the enterprise performance. An empirical study is made based on statistic data of enterprises in China. The results show that the model assumptions are partly confirmed, and some conclusions and assumptions are totally opposite. These conclusions are relevant to the attitudes of the Chinese in transition economy period and lack of communication, trust and shared vision of Chinese enterprises.

Key words: intellectual capital, social capital, performance, competitive advantage