Growth factors of the coworking industry: the case of Prague

Abstract

PurposeThe global coworking industry is currently growing at a rapid pace. Similarly, Prague is witnessing an influx of global coworking operators who entered the market since 2018 and are expanding significantly. The purpose of this paper is to investigate enabling factors for this growth.Design/methodology/approachAfter a brief review of coworking and relevant typologies of its various forms, the paper conducts a narrative review of the coworking industry in Prague and its socioeconomic situation. This is subsequently linked in a discussion on growth factors that have facilitated the growth of the coworking industry of Prague.FindingsWith global coworking brands expanding in Prague's coworking industry by primarily targeting corporate teams, they benefit from favorable socioeconomic conditions in Prague as an attractive destination for businesses, which increasingly opt for coworking spaces to reap its positive benefits.Research limitations/implicationsDue to the conceptual approach and specific case of Prague, the discussions lack generalizability.Practical implicationsThe paper provides valuable insight into the enabling growth factors that can serve practitioners to better predict and react to potential future developments, as well as provide an additional perspective in evaluating corporate real estate.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the still underresearched field of coworking by investigating enabling growth factors in a macroeconomic context.

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

“…Interviews were conducted with managers and workspace operators in coworking spaces that are located in Central and Eastern Europe, set across the four countries of the Visegrád region—The Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. The setting of the so-called “Visegrád Four” has been selected due to the thriving economic landscape (Ivanová et al 2018 ; Gubik and Farkas 2019 ) and a rapidly growing flexible office space market that results in a varied landscape of coworking environments (Kovács and Zoltán 2017 ; Šebestová et al 2017 ; Isac 2019 ; Mayerhoffer 2020 ).…”

“…As coworking environments have emerged in response to the global economic transformation over the past two decades (Orel and Dvouletý 2020 ), two versions of the flexible office arrangement have begun to appear (Tremblay and Scaillerez 2020 ). Studies indicate that the generally smaller, independently owned coworking spaces tend to focus on developing internal networks, creating a supportive community of peers who shape the identity of the environment together (Bouncken et al 2018 ; Mayerhoffer 2020 ). In contrast, franchised or multi-location coworking spaces are typically larger, and their footprint spans multiple locations.…”

The Evolution of Coworking Spaces in Milan and Prague: Spatial Patterns, Diffusion, and Urban Change

“…Prague is responsible for 25% of GDP of the Czech Republic although its share on the country population reaches 12% only. Prague's GDP per capita in PPP (56,200 EUR) makes the city the seventh richest region in the EU 28 as a percentage (187%) to the EU average (Mayerhoffer 2020). Due to presence of almost all national authorities of the public sector administration, headquarters of the largest domestic corporations and conglomerates by revenues, and institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague is considered as one of the primary business and innovation centres in Central Eastern Europe along with Warsaw and Budapest.…”

“…Due to presence of almost all national authorities of the public sector administration, headquarters of the largest domestic corporations and conglomerates by revenues, and institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague is considered as one of the primary business and innovation centres in Central Eastern Europe along with Warsaw and Budapest. Such condition attracts both domestic and foreign direct investment in knowledgeintensive business services (KIBS) resulting in 75% employment in service sector and the lowest unemployment among the EU 28 regions before the COVID-19 pandemic having been below 2% in the last several years (Mayerhoffer 2020).…”

“…This delay stems from the hierarchical diffusion of innovations, as Prague lies outside Europe's main economic axis -the so-called Blue Banana. As Mayerhoffer (2020) suggests, Prague currently undergoes the internationalization of CS activities which is a result of the entry of the international/global CS providers who implement their activities into the new property-led office development projects in the centre and the inner city. This is reflected in the spontaneous spatial dissemination of CSs encouraged by the neoliberal environment of the city's public policy.…”