Burdensome Gifts: Interactional Trials Between Nascent Social Entrepreneurs & Impact Intermediaries

How do interactions with social impact intermediaries shape the emotional energy of nascent social entrepreneurs operating in distressed geographies? This is an important question given the growing prevalence of exchanges between impact intermediaries and nascent social entrepreneurs in addressing wicked social problems amidst severe resource scarcities. To answer the above question, we investigate the case of Systemic Leap, a philanthropic intermediary and its portfolio of nascent social entrepreneurs carrying out social missions in remote rural areas or urban slums in India. Drawing on two-year ethnographic observations, interviews, and archival data, we develop a process model of intricate social impact intermediation. Our model shows that intricate impact intermediation work is enacted through five main practices: (a) exacting rhetorical expositions, (b) entangling funding with intensive interactional rituals, (c) evangelizing de-contextualized templates, (d) endearing repeated articulations, and impact measurements, and (e) realizing disconnections and reducing interactional intensity. Through our findings, we show that intricate impact work aids in the continued sustenance and greater formalization of a very small portion of nascent social entrepreneurs but not without emotional energy drain which mostly goes unnoticed. Intricate impact work makes nascent social entrepreneurs feel exhausted, confused, yet relieved and grateful for exchanging with intermediaries. Our paper contributes to the growing literature on unintended dark sides of social entrepreneurship by drawing attention to the interaction rituals, and the emotional and cognitive dissonance caused via intermediation practices.