An Application of Information Quality Theories to an Historical Example: The Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand and it's Joint Venture with William Holyman & Sons and Huddart Parker Limited, 1904 to 1935

Abstract

Scholars concerned with an information-based view of an economy make an implicit assumption that firm efficiencies are based on information of good quality. To date there has been little attempt to develop theories of information that explain the importance of qualitative factors. In this firm-specific study an explanation of the importance of information quality is given by utilising and extending Casson's diagrammatic methodology for representing information flows. This has been done by measuring aspects of the information flows through Wm. Holyman & Sons Ltd and Holymans Ltd, in the period 1904 to 1935. Wm. Holyman & Sons Ltd and Holymans Ltd were both Tasmanian-based joint venture companies. The joint venture partners were the shipping firms of Union Steamship Company of New Zealand (USSCo.), Wm. Holyman & Sons Ltd (Holyman's), and Huddart Parker Company Ltd (HP). The two joint venture companies were registered in 1904. In 1924 they were rationalised into one joint venture company, Wm. Holyman & Sons Ltd, which continued trading successfully until 1975. The years 1904, 1919,1920,1924, and 1935 have been chosen for detailed examination. This has been undertaken by applying a Content Analysis methodology to the Head Office records of USSCo., which have survived from these periods. The results have provided a way of extending Casson's diagrammatic methodology and in so doing, added to Casson's own contribution to the theory of the firm. The evidence from the archives suggests that a high quality of information underpinned the joint venture and ensured success for a seventy-year period. Furthermore, the research findings support the thesis that information of high quality contributes in a significant way to firm efficiencies. Finally, the results from this research essay will assist future researchers in finding concrete evidence of information quality in similar research case studies.