Abstract
Coworking spaces have been proliferating world-wide in urban and rural areas while facilitating entrepreneurship and new, especially digital business models. Our research analyzes the worldwide expansion by drawing upon mechanisms from institutional theory. We argue that the sense of community, emotional activation, the local communities together with the digital linkages and the open office allowed coworking spaces to evolve as a real space for entrepreneurship. The common lifestyle and the high digital identity of the users further explain the emergence of this entrepreneurship field that shows high convergent forms of coworking spaces. The key divergence comes with different ownership models.
Highlights
Digital experts and entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley initiated the concept of coworking spaces (Bouncken and Reuschl 2018), which rapidly proliferated aroundInternational Entrepreneurship and Management Journal (2020) 16:1465–1481 the world, mainly because the sharing economy (Richter et al 2017; Huarng and Yu 2019) requires digital experts while needing the creative and social power through sharing office and work spaces (Kraus et al 2019; Bouncken et al 2020b)
Independent coworking spaces might develop into a new institutional field in which entrepreneurship is key (Greenwood et al 2010)
Incumbent firms are starting to take upon this institutional change while accessing the creativity environment of coworking spaces and experimenting with new organizational forms for innovation and entrepreneurship (Tracey et al 2011)
Summary
Digital experts and entrepreneurs in the Silicon Valley initiated the concept of coworking spaces (Bouncken and Reuschl 2018), which rapidly proliferated around. The purpose of this paper is to model what coercive, normative, and mimetic processes (Mahoney and Thelen 2010) and possibly novel isomorphism forces underlie the emergence, convergence, and divergence within and of coworking spaces Converging and diverging exogenous and endogenous forces come from the global and national institutional framework, from the digitalizing world (Laudien and Pesch 2019) They include individuals’ need for personal interaction, communication of ideas and knowledge, and of institutional isomorphism as organizations tend to develop similar institutions as they influence each other and of similar contexts (DiMaggio and Powell 1983). Convergence and divergence forces around the dynamics of the IT-world and social networks, the easy accessibility of tangible resources, especially the interior and intangibles and relationships develop a new institutional field of coworking spaces. Our framework specifies the normative and mimetic processes that build and drive coworking spaces and so contributes to understanding driving forces for entrepreneurship
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
