Abstract In the last few years, a trend has been observed that regards teamwork as a fundamental unit for develop learning processes and other production activities. Group learning is thus the bridge between individual and organizational learning. This paper examines the relative importance and significance of some common components of group learning on ‘group capital’ (i.e. objective and collective knowledge created by teams) and the effects of such capital on the creation of intellectual capital through an empirical investigation of 139 small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Spanish optometry sector using structural equation modelling validated by factor analysis. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.