Yacoub and Haefliger assessed spaces designed to support collaboration at seven entrepreneurial Tech/FinTech firms in London. They report that at coworking sites “Start-ups have to maximise both the spatial proximity and the informality at the earlier stages of their involvement in the space in order to reach the collective exploration stage. For example, the informal and occasional interactions such as events, workshops, and the talks in the open kitchen/lounge that happen in the coworking space act as facilitator in building the first step of a collaborative practice and should be encouraged. However, once the stage of collective exploration has been reached, these same features hinder the emergence of collaborative practices, and thus should be rather controlled in order to achieve a collaborative practice.”
G. Yacoub and S. Haefliger. 2022. “Coworking Spaces and Collaborative Practices.” Organization, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 87-114, doi: 10.1177/13505084221074037