Sustainability in coworking spaces: A study on the coworking member’s perspective

Licentiate thesis, 2024

The sharing economy is a trend that enables people to better utilize underused resources. Coworking spaces are a relatively new concept that falls under the umbrella of the sharing economy and are often regarded as the new model of work. A coworking space is a subscription-based workspace where individuals and teams from different companies work in a shared communal space. As the popularity of coworking increases, researchers have started to focus more on sustainable coworking spaces. Sustainable coworking spaces are still in their infancy and have mostly incorporated the corporate level (i.e., coworking provider) perspective while neglecting the individual level (i.e., coworking members) perspective. Coworking members play an important role when it comes to creating more sustainable coworking spaces as a complement to the provider’s efforts. Since there is an absence of literature that includes the coworking member’s role in creating sustainable coworking spaces, the purpose of this thesis is to attain new knowledge of sustainability in coworking spaces with a specific focus on the coworking member’s perspective.
This thesis builds on three scientific papers. The first paper conceptualizes what sustainable coworking behavior is. It defines it as behavior that simultaneously achieves the goals and objectives for the represented organization, benefits other individuals inside the coworking space, and responsibly shares the coworking space. The second paper focuses on developing a new scale for assessing sustainable coworking behavior. The third paper highlights the drivers of sustainable coworking behavior and specifically investigates the relationship between psychological ownership and sustainable coworking behavior. The findings add to the emerging field of coworking spaces through its unique focus on the perspective of the coworking member. From a practical point of view, this thesis can support the way coworking providers manage sustainable coworking spaces where the coworking member’s behavior is considered.