Exploring the path of social entrepreneurship for young people in the new era and strengthening and innovating urban social governance has become an important task in promoting the modernization of social governance and continuously improving the effectiveness of social governance in China. Faced with the complex social demands and governance issues that arise in the process of urbanization, various regions across the country have conducted multi-level innovative explorations on urban social governance. Among them, promoting the development of social enterprises (hereinafter referred to as "social enterprises") is an important exploration to promote the diversification of social governance innovation subjects and mobilize social resources to participate in social governance. Social enterprises are organizations that use innovative business models to achieve social missions and solve social problems through market-oriented and commercial means. According to the United Nations' 2020 World Youth Report: Youth Social Entrepreneurship and the 2030 Agenda, in the context of the severe global employment situation, social entrepreneurs continue to emerge among young people and have become a new choice for youth innovation and entrepreneurship. In the past decade, social enterprises in China have developed rapidly. According to a survey by the China Social Entrepreneurship Research Center at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, young people under the age of 39 account for 56% of the social entrepreneurship group, gradually becoming the most active vanguard force in China's social entrepreneurship. To further promote the sustainable development of social enterprises in China and broaden the channels for youth employment and entrepreneurship, it is necessary to have a deep understanding of the current situation of youth social enterprise entrepreneurship and optimize support policies based on their experiences. How do young entrepreneurs view social enterprises? After years of exploration, there are four main paths for the development of social enterprises in China: the market-oriented transformation of traditional social organizations, the public welfare transformation of commercial enterprises, the transformation of public institutions into social enterprises, and spontaneous social enterprises. However, from the perspective of certified social enterprises, most of them are driven by top-down government efforts and are not the mainstream way for young social enterprises to start businesses. For example, in communities at the core of social entrepreneurship (hereinafter referred to as "social entrepreneurship"), most certified social enterprises are operated by the legal representative of the community neighborhood committee. In contrast, youth social entrepreneurship often starts as commercial companies that promote sustainable community development and practice public welfare concepts, and its specific performance tends to be more bottom-up spontaneous social enterprises. Although there are differences in the positioning and understanding of social enterprises between domestic and foreign academic circles, and there are also differences in the definition of social enterprises at the practical level between industries and regions, for young social entrepreneurs, social enterprises are not a black-and-white concept, but a continuum between public welfare and business. Social entrepreneurship youth generally believe that enterprises that combine social welfare and economic profitability are social enterprises, and tend to identify themselves as general entrepreneurs with the spirit of social entrepreneurship. This definition implies a more flexible operational approach for them, which allows them to actively engage in social innovation, contribute to social governance, and cope with the complexity of the entrepreneurial process. It is a state of being able to attack and defend. This tendency mainly stems from the practical considerations of young people in entrepreneurial practice. Although support policies have been introduced in various regions, social entrepreneurship youth often show a more conservative attitude towards transforming enterprises into certified social enterprises. Due to the certain threshold for social enterprise certification, startups need to invest additional costs and energy to maintain the various norms of certified social enterprises, which to some extent reduces their enthusiasm for seeking social enterprise recognition and weakens the identity recognition of young people as social entrepreneurs. The conservative attitude of young people towards the recognition and certification development of social enterprises reflects the many practical challenges they face on the path of social entrepreneurship. These challenges are mainly reflected in three aspects. Firstly, the scale of enterprise development is limited. Currently, youth social entrepreneurship is mainly based on small-scale spontaneous social enterprises, especially in first tier cities and economically developed areas, where young people clearly prefer small and beautiful operating models. First tier cities such as Beijing, Shenzhen, and Chengdu have diverse types of communities with huge population sizes and varying spatial scales. The complex community and population size imply diverse resident needs and lifestyles, as well as complex community issues and development challenges. Young people creatively see these urgent problems as new business opportunities, emerging as community managers or builders with different formats and styles in the context of the prevailing culture of "urban managers". However, due to their weak self generating ability, most of these social entrepreneurship youth still maintain the identity of "slash youth" and rely on other part-time jobs to support their social entrepreneurship. Secondly, the market competitiveness of start-up social enterprises is not strong. Although social enterprises tend to focus their business on areas where traditional enterprises perceive limited market potential, this does not mean that they do not need to face market competition. Like traditional enterprises, social enterprises also need to gain profits by exploring markets and creating value to achieve sustainable operation. Although social innovation is the core competitiveness of young people, the survival environment of social enterprises is already more severe than that of traditional enterprises. Whether those new business models can maintain competitiveness when peers launch homogeneous projects and achieve a balance between righteousness and profit is an important test faced by young social entrepreneurs. Thirdly, the conflict between the lifecycle of social enterprises and the lifecycle of young individuals. In the early stages of social entrepreneurship, young people were mostly driven by a sense of social responsibility and mission after observing social problems, and devoted themselves to the development of social enterprises. At this stage, they generally agree that the sense of achievement in bringing value to society is higher than the satisfaction brought by money and income increase, and are willing to bear higher trial and error costs. Even if they fail, they tend to start a business again. But as they grow older, social entrepreneurship youth inevitably face pressure from the social clock (such as marriage, childbirth, etc.), which may lead them to give up social enterprise operations and seek more stable career development paths. As of 2024, China has 22 super large and mega cities, which means that the risks and social governance needs faced by various urban areas are becoming increasingly complex and diverse. The innovation model of social enterprises provides the government with a low-cost way to verify the effectiveness of innovative solutions in addressing different social needs and problems. Youth development is closely linked to urban development, and their active participation in social entrepreneurship is of great significance for promoting their own growth and stable urban development. Therefore, how to assist young social enterprises in entrepreneurship is worthy of common attention from all sectors of society. We need to promote resource integration and provide more support to social enterprises in the early and middle stages of entrepreneurship. Although young people generally receive policy support in the early stages of entrepreneurship, they still face many challenges in advancing their businesses to the next stage. Due to the fact that social enterprises mainly serve vulnerable groups, their products or services are difficult to obtain investment through traditional financing methods; At the same time, young people often start from small and micro enterprises with low economic returns and long return cycles, while governments and investment institutions focus more on large-scale and influential projects, resulting in a relative shortage of public welfare venture capital. This often leaves start-up social enterprises struggling to sustain their daily operations and expand their cash flow, wavering between achieving their mission and maintaining their survival. Therefore, to assist young people in social entrepreneurship, it is necessary to further integrate resources from various regions at the government level, provide more necessary resources for young people in the early and middle stages of entrepreneurship in terms of industry, environment, etc., and provide tailored entrepreneurship services for different development stages. Secondly, we need to create an atmosphere where communities and the general public actively participate in solving social problems, and enhance public awareness of social enterprises. At present, the foundation of public welfare undertakings in China has begun to take shape, but the exposure of social enterprises in the public eye is still insufficient. To attract more social forces to assist young people in their path of social innovation, it is necessary to strengthen overall coordination, promote innovative and widely recognized social enterprise cases through various media and channels, regularly hold forums and exhibitions, share successful experiences, and popularize social innovation concepts. Through these measures, the visibility, recognition, and credibility of social enterprises can be enhanced, and the public's understanding of their business models, operational methods, and social missions can be improved, thus creating a good atmosphere for bottom-up, community driven, and grassroots efforts to solve social problems. We must strengthen the cooperation between industry, academia and research, and enhance the development capacity and competitiveness of social enterprises. To overcome the development limitations faced by young people in the process of social entrepreneurship, such as insufficient funding, human resources, and enterprise capabilities, it is necessary to strengthen industry university research cooperation centered on social enterprises and guided by market demand. Social enterprises, universities, and research institutes should leverage their respective strengths, optimize resource allocation, and promote the restructuring of innovative elements. For example, the main reason why social enterprises find it difficult to establish themselves in rural areas is often that their products and services do not match local demand. Therefore, social enterprises can collaborate with multiple parties to establish research and development platforms, deeply analyze the actual needs of different resident groups and the resource characteristics, governance difficulties, and development priorities of different urban and rural communities, and ensure that product services accurately match their needs. At the same time, social enterprises can establish strategic partnerships with universities to provide students with opportunities for social innovation practice, stimulate entrepreneurial interest, and guide them to create employment through public welfare entrepreneurship; Universities integrate social development and governance concepts into professional education, providing more professional talents for social enterprises and enhancing young people's social creativity. (New Press) (This article is a phased achievement of the National Social Science Fund's key project "Social Psychological Characteristics and Evolutionary Trends under the Goal of Common Prosperity" (23ASH004)) Author: Wu Yun (Special Researcher at the Global Industry Research Institute of Tsinghua University)