Career concerns can impact the adoption new technology, depending on the industry context, such as whether new managers need to shine early or play it safe and whether early adoption enhances one’s reputation or has no effect.
The adoption of new technology by companies and their leaders is often slow. Reasons for this hesitation can range from incentive structures that push managers to favor established technology, as well as the challenges related to learning, coordinating, and funding new technology.
Another potential factor slowing the adoption of new technology may be career concerns whether working to adopt new technology helps or hinders one’s career. The impact of career concerns on technology adoption is explored in a study focused on the movie-making profession specifically on whether the career stages of film directors influenced their adoption of the emerging film digital technology.
Before 1995, nearly all movies were shot on film. The adoption of digital technology including the use of digital cameras and digital editing and cinematography techniques was at first very slow partly because of the lower quality of digital filming and the lack of costly digital projectors in movie theatres. During the early 2000s, digital technology started to become more popular with directors: just over 20% of movies in 2008 were shot digitally. As digital costs went down, quality went up, and digital projectors were installed in most movie theatres, the use of digital film increased significantly. By 2018, nearly 95% of movies were shot digitally although there were still directors, such as Quentin Tarantino, who remained loyal to film.
A study that covers films made between the years 1975-2018 shows that early adopters of digital film were more likely to be young, inexperienced directors trying to make a name for themselves. More experienced directors preferred to wait till the new technology was more proven and more accepted within the industry. First-time directors, specifically, were the most likely to be early adopters of the new digital technology, although directors with one or two previous films were still more than twice as likely to use digital film than more experienced directors.
Two factors seem to explain why early career directors adopted the new technology early while experienced directors waited.
In the film industry, the competition for directors is fierce, which means that new directors can continue making films only if their early films are very successful. As a result, they have an incentive to take risks, including adopting new technology, to stand out. Experience directors, in contrast, have a “continuation advantage”: having proven their worth, a setback will not sink their careers.
In terms of reputational impact, a film director’s reputation is built on critical and box office success. There was no evidence in the research that early adoption of digital technology gave directors any kind of a “first mover” advantage another reason for experienced directors to take a wait-and-see attitude concerning the new technology. The study was based on data from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) website concerning all films made between 1975 and 2018 with box office revenues of at least $10,000 (in 2018 inflation-adjusted dollars). The information collected includes specific technological specifications on the type of camera and cinematographic process used as well as information on the career of the director (career information includes previous experience in other technical roles, such as cinemaphotographer).
This study reveals a connection between career concerns and the adoption of new technology within the context of the film industry. To determine whether this career stage impact on technology adoption applies to other industries depends in great part on two industry-specific factors: whether career success depends on making a big impact early or gradually climbing the proverbial career ladder, and whether early adoption will have a long-term impact on a manager’s reputation or no effect.
In industries in which the competition for promotion is low managers don’t need to stand out with an early spectacular success to continue in their careers—there is less incentive for new managers to take a risk on new technology. In industries in which the reputational benefits of early adoption are minimal, there will be less incentive for new or experienced managers to adopt new technology.
Organizations that wish to see greater adoption of new technology will want to determine whether the career progression incentives in their industry and the mix of new and experienced managers in their organizations may be hampering or influencing new technology adoption. Companies operating in fierce labor markets and where the benefits of early adoption of new technology, as in the film industry, will likely find that new managers are quick to adopt new technology, while experienced managers hesitate.
It should be noted that in other industries, career concerns may generate different types of technology adoption frictions. A detailed analysis of the competitive landscape can help identify those frictions. That said, this study provides an empirical and conceptual framework to follow for any organization exploring the impact of career concerns on technology adoption.
Grant Goehring’s profile at Boston University
https://www.bu.edu/econ/profile/grant-goehring/
Filippo Mezzanotti’s profile at Kellogg School of Management
https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/faculty/directory/mezzanotti_filippo/
Abraham Ravid’s profile at Yeshiva University
https://www.yu.edu/faculty/pages/ravid-s-abraham
Technology Adoption and Career Concerns: Evidence from the Adoption of Digital Technology in Motion Pictures. Grant Goehring, Filippo Mezzanotti, S. Abraham Ravid. NBER Report (August 2024).
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