Shared working spaces have experienced a boom in recent years. But while the idea is that they could encourage collaboration and creative innovation through shared ideas between startups, a recent examination of a handful of case studies over longer periods suggests the opposite could be happening.
Haefliger and his colleague Ghassan Yacoub, Professor of Innovation and Strategy at the IESEG School of Management, examined the collaboration that was emerging at the coworking space in one of the largest specialized hubs in Europe, Level 39. They created a case study around the seven fintech startups using this space through interviews, archive footage and observations.
“Despite the emergence of coworking spaces as new work practices, little is known about them the emergence of collaboration and in particular the emergence of collaborative practices these open and flexible workspaces to meet and interact with employees from other organizations,” the couple said wrote in their newspaper.
A sense of community and openness are processes very famous to promote productivity, collaboration and thus innovation. Therefore, it seems contradictory that over time the team found that working in this shared environment instead seemed to impede the collaborative practices between the companies that could generate innovation.
Initially, the shared spaces helped initiate the fraternization between the startups, with informal and planned interactions, including events, workshops and talks in the common areas (communal kitchen, lounge and breakout areas), all marking the first steps of a cooperative practice.
But as these activities continued, they also disrupted collaboration, with attempts to organize the space for events seen as distracting.
Of the seven startups, three eventually left the coworking space, saying the benefits of collaborative spaces are short-lived and constant changes as more companies join is disruptive.
“Maybe it’s going to be too big for everyone to benefit equally,” said one company representative speculated.
“I think there’s too many businesses there and the main lounge area is crowded with drop-in members rather than a casual place for the permanent businesses there to come together, talk and get to know each other,” another group explained.
With the coworking company aiming to scale up, the perspective of its users who value qualities due to limited growth could be seen as a conflict.
Haefliger and Yacoub found that collaboration needed to be actively managed to be sustainable, but that there was a difficult balance between encouraging innovation and stifling it.
“It is the responsibility of the host of the space and those who use it to make it a place that can see thriving partnerships and a hotbed for next-gen ideas,” explained habitual.
Of course, this is just one example of the coworking experiments currently taking place around the world, based on seven financial technology companies. Other industries, such as creative or non-profit organizations, might find that the coworking process is different for them, the researchers point out, but their findings could provide a useful comparison for future research.
This study was published in organization.
