The Role of an Intermediary Agent in Technology Integration Within Developing Countries: A Film Industry Perspective

Abstract

The Bangladesh Film Industry has been attempting to move from traditional analogue film production to digital production during the last decade without much success. One major problem is that the digital technology has to be acquired from international donors in advanced countries and the Government's public procurement policy stipulates that this transfer of technology from the donor to the recipient must be expedited by a local ‘intermediary agent’ (e.g. business entrepreneurs). Our research findings have confirmed that the local film industry (recipient) requires support with installation of technology, film distribution/ exhibition, and maintenance (production level) and some management tasks. All of which is not usually provided because of incompetency on the part of the intermediary agents and because of limitations in the public procurement policy for this industry sector. One policy implication is whether government procurement policy should target more direct B2B contact between the technology recipient and the international donor. This could help upgrade innovation capabilities of local industry. Our empirical research findings are based on direct insights gained from six semi-structured face-to-face interviews with key respondents based in Bangladesh (e.g. Directors and Senior Management staff of the Bangladesh Film & Development Corporation and other key respondents). Note: findings reported here are from a larger study of 40+ interviews on the theme of digital technology integration in Bangladesh film industry. We report that policy makers should direct policy toward the development of technological system, infrastructure and technical training in the long run, rather than mainly focusing on boosting foreign technical assistance, which does not appear to help support manufacturing processes in film making to make a smooth transition from analogue to digital technology use. There should also be a sterner public evaluation body that pre-evaluates and post-evaluates the success or otherwise of the technology integration process.