Coworking spaces as talent hubs: The imperative for community building in the changing context of new work

Abstract

Coworking spaces are flexible and shared work environments that make a significant effort to connect users with supportive networks that commonly result in efficient work outputs, a high level of collaboration and knowledge transfer. Recent years have seen swift growth and popularisation of the coworking model, making these spaces an integral part of local entrepreneurial ecosystems and transforming them into the localised pools of specialised talent. However, little research has been conducted to understand the role of human talent in coworking spaces, indicating a knowledge gap in human resource management and the role of contemporary coworking environments. Therefore, the purpose of the following paper is to contextualize coworking spaces as (local) talent hubs by investigating how they tend to build their identity on their userbase. The manuscript explores the managerial practices and mediation techniques by presenting empirical evidence and subsequent analysis of talent attraction and retention mechanisms commonly used in coworking environments. The study shows that by facilitating interaction and collaboration between users, coworking spaces offer support throughout the business life cycle and identify themselves as local accelerators of entrepreneurship and talent development within their local environments. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11846-021-00487-4.

Do start-ups benefit from coworking spaces? An empirical analysis of accelerators’ programs

“…Such a circulation is enhanced by informal communication among individuals (Garrett et al 2017;Khazanchi et al 2018;Kraus et al 2022;Spinuzzi et al 2019), represented by coopetitors, educators, venture capitals, and business angels. In line with Orel et al (2022), our study shows that coworking spaces may act as local environments that provide support for firms' innovative knowledge. Within cohorts of accelerated start-ups, in fact, proximity among individuals boosts knowledge sharing and generation, thereby favoring the achievement of radical or incremental innovation (Bouncken and Aslam 2019;Capdevila 2013;Parrino 2015).…”

The key to happiness in collaborative workplaces. Evidence from coworking spaces

“…Overall, we believe that our study contributes to the existing literature on coworking spaces by shedding light on both the organizational and psychological dynamics that make these environments uniquely interesting (Blagoev et al 2019 ; Bouncken et al 2018 ; Butcher 2018 ; Garrett et al 2017 ; Orel et al 2021 ) as a compelling manifestation of a “cultural revolution” occurring in work methods and dynamics (Leclercq-Vandelannoitte and Isaac 2016 ; Vidaillet and Bousalham 2018 ; Waters-Lynch and Duff 2021 ), which is expected to further accelerate due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic (Mayerhoffer 2021 ). In the next section, we describe the conceptual background of our study and the rationales for our research hypotheses.…”

“…Nevertheless, it must be also acknowledged that not all independent coworking spaces have the same “community potential.” As such, we need to separate the so-called “entrepreneurial-driven” coworking spaces (e.g., WeWork) from the more “community-led” spaces (Appel-Meulenbroek et al 2020 ). The former manifest themselves as franchised or multi-location coworking spaces (Orel et al 2021 ), meaning they are typically larger and more commercially oriented (Blagoev et al 2019 ). Such spaces mainly serve startups and tech freelancers/companies, aiming to promote business development.…”

“…In this context, several companies have become increasingly interested in offering knowledge workers alternative (not necessarily internal) workspaces (Brown 2017 ; Nagy and Lindsay 2018 ) to better suit their needs and expectations in terms of flexibility, autonomy, knowledge enrichment, and social interactions (Bouncken et al 2020a ). Moreover, an increasing number of start-uppers, freelancers, and independent professionals (Appel-Meulenbroek et al 2020 ; Bouncken et al 2020b ; Bouncken and Reuschl 2018 ; Butcher 2018 ) have sought innovative solutions to satisfy their need to counter the sense of isolation with which these kinds of workers usually struggle (Blagoev et al 2019 ; Gandini 2015 ; King 2017 ; Orel et al 2021 ), while simultaneously combining their own skills and resources with those offered by other knowledge workers and like-minded people (Bouncken et al 2018 ; Garrett et al 2017 ).…”

“…In this view, coworking spaces can be framed as “dynamic assemblages” (Avdikos and Pettas 2021 ; Jakonen et al 2017 ) where various kinds of users can find ways to develop social ties with inspiring people, learn from them, improve idea generation and implementation (Butcher 2018 ; Gerdenitsch et al 2016 ), and build new business opportunities or creative ideas while actualizing their unique configuration of personal strengths, talents, and preferences (Orel et al 2021 ; Spinuzzi et al 2018 ). These aspects appear to be consistent with the main drivers of happiness (Deci and Ryan 1985 ; Nezlek 2001 ) and particularly with the drivers of happiness at work (Rego et al 2011 ), which is an increasingly relevant topic within the managerial and organizational discourse (Liu et al 2020 ; Salas-Vallina et al 2020 ) as work environments progressively become structured in a bottom-up, loose fashion (Bouncken et al 2018 ; Garrett et al 2017 ; Spinuzzi 2012 ).…”