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The I DO project connects business students to the European branch of small private international development organizations (PIs), using experiential service learning, which combines skill-based and hands-on volunteering opportunities, to achieve learning objectives with students (learning) while helping PIs (service). This paper aims to summarize the experiences and learnings of the pilot project.

Students work in four-person teams, guided by a student-coach, an academic supervisor and professional support, on a service project for one PI. Students provide indirect service to the PI through skill-based activities (e.g. creating marketing strategies or improving organizational efficiency) or hands-on volunteering (e.g. fundraising). In this program, students do not provide direct service to beneficiaries (i.e. they do not travel abroad). “I DO” will be established as a scalable regular course within the RSM Bachelor’s program. A pilot involving 22 students and 6 PIs was started in September 2020.

The teaching brief describes lessons learned from the non-credit bearing 2021 pilot. As skill-based volunteers, students performed hands-on support tasks, conducted analyses, and formulated strategic recommendations. In the pilot, however, the students did not take on the active role of skill-based volunteer consultants, concentrating instead on the safer, easier role of hands-on support volunteers. Future improvements could thus be realized in the preparation phase, as well as by focusing the guidance of the coaches and academic supervisor on the stated learning objectives. The project and the students’ motivation were negatively affected by the lockdown. In the future, including after the pandemic, measures will be added to maintain motivation, including a focus on the personal development of students, social events between students and stronger involvement on the part of the coach.

The teaching brief presents a new approach to service learning in international development as the service is giving to Western “headquarters” in both hands-on as skill-based volunteering.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the following research question: how can intermediaries contribute to social impact creation through their interventions at different levels of distribution networks in the base of the pyramid (BoP) markets?

The paper adopts an embedded case study of an intermediary organization. The analysis focuses on the intervention of the intermediary on the distribution stages of supply chains in four different projects in the food sector in Ethiopia, Benin, Nigeria and Bangladesh.

The embedded case study reveals essential formal and informal roles undertaken by the intermediary organization to develop decentralized distribution networks based on local micro-entrepreneurs. The study proposes that efforts undertaken by the intermediaries toward knowledge sharing and capacity building among partners can enable the adoption of pro-poor strategies across the supply chain. Moreover, hybrid intermediaries can act as “guardians” of the mutual value creation approach since one of their key roles is to advocate the needs of the BoP.

Important implications for improving nutrition and food security in the BoP markets are developed based on the empirical findings. The findings open avenues for further research into the antecedents of retention rates in distribution networks based on local micro-entrepreneurs.

Findings have implications for different types of BoP initiatives by highlighting how intermediary organizations intervene to develop distribution models with a special focus on social impact.

This paper fills an important research gap by discussing social impact aspects in BoP supply chains by adopting the perspective of intermediary organizations.