Management summary Research study “User preferences for coworking spaces; a comparison between the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic”

The study evolves around the user characterictis of novel flexible and collaborative workspaces. Coworking spaces have become a central component of new work environments, with large international chains. The purpose of the study has been to investigate whether user preferences for the physical workspace design are consistent across countries, which the uniformity of such chains seems to suggest. A comparison between the user preferences of coworking spaces between the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic has been performed using a mixed multinomial logic model for each country.

The findings show that there are some consistencies in preferences across countries. Typical real estate characteristics like accessibility and contract options came forward to be the most important attributes in choosing which coworking space to work at in all three countries. However, significant differences in the desired quality levels of specifically these attributes were found between the countries as well, and only the less important attributes showed similar preferences internationally. This suggests that identical world-wide implementations of the same concept, might serve multi-nationals but possibly will not attract local users. The identified differences in preferences can help to position more specific, dedicated coworking spaces within local markets.

Target groups of stakeholders: Coworking space managers, company managers, flexible workplace users

Citation: APA Zdroj / Source: Open Access / https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11846-020-00414-z