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The aim of this paper is twofold. The main objective is to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the tensions that characterize social enterprises because of their dual (economic and social) commitments in a Hungarian context.

The research was exploratory, as no structured inquiry has been carried out in a Hungarian context concerning the sources of tension social enterprises encounter because of their dual commitments. Therefore, a qualitative approach was chosen to achieve the exploratory goal. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were carried out with one expert and nine social entrepreneurs to map and understand these tensions in a Hungarian context.

The research provides a comprehensive three-level model of tensions in which concrete (observable) tensions are grouped into 4 main groups of tensions and 15 subgroups.

This study is original in two ways. First, besides the numerous tensions other researchers have already observed, this study revealed some that have not been empirically observed. Second, being the first research on tensions in a Hungarian context, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the results increase understanding of social entrepreneurship in a Hungarian context based on the lived experiences of Hungarian social entrepreneurs.