Self-employment and the use of coworking spaces

Karyna Akchebash

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The industry of coworking spaces is becoming progressively popular all over the world. It generates a high demand and expeditious emergency of new coworking spaces globally. More and more self-employed individuals choose coworking spaces instead of traditional offices. Hence, this thesis aims to explore what motives them to choose this type of working space by investigating what advantages and disadvantages do coworking spaces have in comparison to regular offices. The study is based on an in-depth literature review and qualitative research conducted in the form of semi-structured interviews with 12 self-employed individuals who are the users of coworking spaces. The findings demonstrate that coworking spaces represent an attractive alternative for self-employed individuals who seek to save money, time, and energy on organizing their working spaces. Furthermore, the ambience of coworking spaces helps to enhance productivity and open up networking opportunities. Still, the privacy in coworking spaces is highly limited which remains an issue for self-employed individuals.

Abstract:

The industry of coworking spaces is becoming progressively popular all over the world. It generates a high demand and expeditious emergency of new coworking spaces globally. More and more self-employed individuals choose coworking spaces instead of traditional offices. Hence, this thesis aims to explore what motives them to choose this type of working space by investigating what advantages and disadvantages do coworking spaces have in comparison to regular offices. The study is based on an in-depth literature review and qualitative research conducted in the form of semi-structured interviews with 12 self-employed individuals who are the users of coworking spaces. The findings demonstrate that coworking spaces represent an attractive alternative for self-employed individuals who seek to save money, time, and energy on organizing their working spaces. Furthermore, the ambience of coworking spaces helps to enhance productivity and open up networking opportunities. Still, the privacy in coworking spaces is highly limited which remains an issue for self-employed individuals.

Keywords

Coworking, Networking, Self-employment, Coworking spaces

Keywords

Coworking, Coworking spaces, Networking, Self-employment

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 29. 12. 2019

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 18. 6. 2020
• Supervisor: Marko Orel
• Reader: Michal Andera

Vysoká škola ekonomická v Praze

Master programme / field:
Ekonomika a management / Management