Abstract:   Legal transplantation towards social enterprises is an important task for the development of social enterprises in China. Understanding the developing process and the generation logic should be taken as the starting point. From the perspective of comparative law, and by comparing the development of social enterprises in Britain, the United States and China, it can be found that social enterprise in Britain and the United States are mainly promoted by complementing the governments social service capacity, improving the governments social service mode, perfecting the organizational and legal forms, as well as the support of civil society and the rise of social entrepreneurs, while in China, social enterprises are influenced by Confucian traditional culture and collectivism. There are differences in cultural tradition, social foundation, legal status and economic background among Chinese, British and American social enterprises.The international experience and Chinese characteristics bring the following enlightenment on the development of social enterprises in China: enterprises should follow the Confucian spirit and strengthen enterprise autonomy, the government should cultivate social space and improve the support system, and the system should establish and improve legislative protection and regulation.

Key words:  social enterprise, social innovation, organizational evolution