Correspondence: Iraj Daizadeh, Medical Affairs, Amgen Inc., M/S: 27-2-E, One Amgen Center Drive, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320, USA. Tel: +1 805 447 6071; Fax: +1 805 375 8546; E-mail: IrajDaizadeh@yahoo.com

¹Iraj Daizadeh
has extensive experience in crafting and implementing corporate, business and functional strategies. He is currently a senior manager at Amgen Inc., where he is leading several process re-engineering initiatives. He is also a part-time lecturer at the MBA programme of the California State University, Channel Islands. Formerly, he has provided management advice to national and international healthcare and biotechnology firms, and was a lecturer of Technology Entrepreneurship at The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, University of California at Irvine. He received his PhD from the University of California at Davis, a Post-doctoral Fellowship from Harvard University, and an MBA from the Judge Business School at Cambridge University, UK. He has over 20 peer-reviewed publications on various topics in science and management practice. He has published with over 15 collaborators, including two Nobel Laureates, and is the recipient of several honorary scientific awards and memberships.

Received 17 July 2006; Revised 17 July 2006.

Abstract

The concomitant rise in the number of technology firms, US issued patents, and patent communications has forced researchers to investigate how such publicly known information can reveal characteristics and/or verify predictive models to describe the R&D-intensive firm. Here, we propose viewing the Boisot Information Space model through the lens of intellectual property as a means to describe and trace the organisational evolution of a technology firm. We map the model's dimensions – viz., codification, abstraction, and dissemination – onto publicly available forms of tangible (eg, patents, publications) and intangible (eg, trade secrets) knowledge assets to show that the model may accurately describe the social dynamics of a biotechnology company as it evolved from a 17-person startup to a >500 person multinational drug development company. This result relates to the firm's abilities to manage both tacit and explicit knowledge. A discussion of the limitations of the proposed model is described.