Following Robinson, Mair, and Hockers (2009), we define social entrepreneurship broadly: „Social entrepreneurship is recognized as encompassing a wide range of activities: enterprising individuals devoted to making a difference; social purpose business ventures dedicated to adding for-profit motivations to the nonprofit sector; new types of philanthropists supporting venture capital-like „investment? portfolios; and nonprofit organizations that are reinventing themselves by drawing on lessons learned from the business world.? In the past decade „social entrepreneurship? has made a popular name for itself on the global scene as a “new phenomenon” that is reshaping the way we think about social value creation. Some of these practices are uniquely new however many have been around for a long time having finally reached critical mass under a widely endorsed label. (Robinson, Mair, and Hockerts, 2009: i) Social entrepreneurship has garnered increased attention in the academy because of its multidisciplinary attractiveness as well as its impact on governments, communities, and organizations. However, there is a paucity of research that has untangled the founding process of social ventures, the strategies that are used by social entrepreneurs, and the challenges of managing a social venture in different institutional contexts. The Global Social Venture Research Conference is a collaboration between Shanghai University, Rutgers Business School’s , The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development (CUEED) and the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.