Social entrepreneurship has always been a contested concept, both within the academic discourse and in practice. A lot of scholarly effort has been put into analyzing the different definitions of social entrepreneurship and the negative consequences that the definitional debate has on the opportunity to advance social entrepreneurship as a research field. Very little is known about what the consequences of the multiple meanings of social entrepreneurship are for people working in the sector. This paper advances knowledge on this topic by looking at the social entrepreneurship sector in England and by investigating through qualitative research methods what sector members think about social entrepreneurship and its unclear boundaries. The results show that there are three different conceptions of social entrepreneurship within the sector in England. However, while everyone agrees on the presence of a definitional debate, opinions on what this means for the sector are several. Some members think it is something positive; some others think it is causing different issues, and a third group considers it as irrelevant.

中文翻译：

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揭开社会企业家精神的面纱：探讨英国的混乱及其后果

无论是在学术领域还是在实践中，社会企业家精神一直是一个有争议的概念。在分析社会企业家精神的不同定义以及定义辩论对促进社会企业家精神作为研究领域的机会所产生的负面影响方面，已经进行了大量的学术努力。人们几乎不了解社会企业家精神的多重含义对在该部门工作的人们的后果。本文通过考察英格兰的社会企业家部门，并通过定性研究方法，调查部门成员对社会企业家及其不明确边界的看法，从而提高了对这一主题的认识。结果表明，在英格兰的部门中，存在三种不同的社会创业概念。但是，尽管每个人都同意进行定义性辩论，但对于这对该行业意味着什么的看法却有很多。一些成员认为这是积极的。其他一些人则认为这引起了不同的问题，而第三组人认为这是无关紧要的。