Bridge over troubled waters: Ideological (mis)alignments and derailment pathways in social impact intermediation

In his doctoral studies, Karthik Rapaka has conducted extensive ethnographic research on early-stage social enterprises embedded in remote rural areas and urban slums of India. His three-paper dissertation investigates the dark sides of resource-exchanges between social entrepreneurs and intermediaries (such as incubators and accelerators). Using longitudinal evidence, he illustrates three impact derailment pathways for social enterprises (paper 1) and develops a theory of intermediation as a cumulative consequence of ideological (mis)alignments (paper 2). Finally, he develops a model illustrating how scaling of social enterprises creates unintended consequence of mock democracy in bureaucratic contexts (paper 3). Cumulatively, this dissertation argues that intermediation towards social impact is like “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” inducing hope and growth but not without risks and dangers that dilute the purpose of social missions.