On Friday 5 June 2026 V.K. Rapaka will defend the doctoral thesis titled: Bridge Over Troubled Waters: Ideological (mis)alignments and derailment pathways in social impact intermediation
- Promotor
- Promotor
- Date
- Friday 5 Jun 2026, 13:00 - 14:30
- Type
- PhD defence
- Space
- Senate Hall
- Building
- Erasmus Building
- Location
- Campus Woudestein
Below is a brief summary of the dissertation:
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.
- More information
The public defence will begin exactly at 13.00 hrs. The doors will be closed once the public defence starts, latecomers may be able to watch on the screen outside. There is no possibility of entrance during the first part of the ceremony. Due to the solemn nature of the ceremony, we recommend that you do not take children under the age of 6 to the first part of the ceremony.
A live stream link has been provided to the candidate.
