Abstract: Based on the institutional theory and the strategic view of organizational legitimacy, we conducted a longitudinal case study to explore the paths and strategic choices of social enterprises to achieve organizational legitimacy. We traced Justering’s entire entrepreneurial process and analyzed its organizational actions and strategies at different stages from a dynamic perspective. It is found that Justering, as a social entrepreneurial enterprise, adopted passive strategies such as complying with the environment out of the external institutional pressure during its founding and early stages to acquire regulatory, moral and practical legitimacy. During the growth and maturity stages, Justering adopted active strategies such as creating favorable environment to enhance moral and practical legitimacy, and gained cognitive legitimacy through establishing  strategic alliances, delivering public presentations, acquiring third-party certification, and driving growth of the sector. 

Key words: social entrepreneurship, organizational legitimacy, regulatory legitimacy, moral legitimacy;
practical legitimacy