New spaces for supporting entrepreneurship?

Co-working spaces
in the Welsh entrepreneurial landscape

Anita Fuzi1, Nick Clifton2 and Gareth Loudon3

1
Cardiff School of Management, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK afuzi@cardiffmet.ac.uk

2
Cardiff School of Management, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK nclifton@cardiffmet.ac.uk
3
Cardiff School of Art and Design, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK gloudon@cardiffmet.ac.uk

Co-working is a broad term that has been rapidly expanding in recent years. The term
refers to the practice of working “alongside each other” in a flexible and shared office
environment where desks can be rented on a different basis and where like-minded
professionals form a community.
In recent years co-working spaces have been successfully developed in cities such as
London and New York to encourage collaboration, creativity, idea sharing, mentoring,
networking, socializing and generating new business opportunities (as well as
keeping costs to a minimum level) for small firms, start-up companies and freelancers
who typically lack the resources of large organizations. However, co-working spaces
are relatively new in South Wales and not well established yet. Little is known about
how these spaces actually work to support the entrepreneurial activities of their
member businesses, what potentials they might have to support graduate
entrepreneurship and to what extent they can be considered as policy interventions in
the Welsh context.
In this paper, the underlying idea is that co-working spaces can support member
businesses in their development processes by helping them to build networks and
create synergies through collaboration in a creative work environment. The main aim
of the paper is to provide an empirical illustration of how co-working spaces can
stimulate the soft aspect of entrepreneurship (e.g. collaboration, interaction and
networking) that support the activities of their members in South Wales.
Employing a combined methodology of secondary data gathering, site visits and
semi-structured interviews along with questionnaire survey, the paper evaluates two
Welsh co-working space models.
The results imply that the selected spaces represent different configurations in terms
of community support, organizational purpose and target audience. However, both
models provide favourable environment for business to flourish.
Keywords
Co-working, entrepreneurship, networks, South Wales

1. Introduction

Entrepreneurship is viewed as a major contribution to economic growth and employment

creation (1). Lee et al. (2) noted that entrepreneurial activity not only requires both a
supportive and productive business climate but also needs a physical environment where
creativity and innovation can flourish. Having a strong and diverse knowledge base, well
developed business and social networks and an ability to identify opportunities also
contribute to successful entrepreneurial behaviour (3–6).

One of the most recognized tools for helping entrepreneurs to create networks and develop
their firms are business incubators (7). However, besides public sector models, there are
now many examples of private sector managed workspaces that support successful
business operation (8). We can find serviced offices such as `Regus` and `Office Space in
Town` that provide flexible and fully equipped office environments and infrastructure for
entrepreneurs and businesses to flourish. However, these offices do not support the soft
aspects of entrepreneurship (e.g. interaction, collaboration and networking) and do not
necessarily promote creative environments, rather, focusing on providing affordable
workspaces for their clients.

In recent years new “third (collaborative)places” have emerged to provide fundamental

conditions to support the soft aspects of entrepreneurship through more mobile and flexible
ways of working. Third places serve as focal points of community life, and combine a
number of conditions that make informal meetings possible, and enable the creativity of
social interactions through openness, flexibility, viability, conviviality and accessibility (9–11).
As Oldenburg (10) describes, to become a successful third place, they must be locally
owned, independent and small-scale, and be based on steady-state business. Furthermore,
the places should be highly accessible, within walking distance, free or cheap and involve
regularity. Co-working spaces are one type of “third” collaborative workplaces, typically
designed to stimulate creativity, where serendipitous interactions might happen between a
multitude of businesses and professionals while “working along together” in flexible and
shared work environments (12,13).

Co-working spaces are new generation workplaces that provide flexible, rentable and cost-
effective community-oriented workspaces for freelancers, entrepreneurs and small
businesses from different sectors (high-tech, creative and knowledge intensive), and also
facilitate collaboration, interaction and networking between their members.

As being an urban phenomenon, co-working spaces have been developed mainly in cities to
encourage collaboration, creativity, idea sharing, mentoring, networking, socializing and
generating new business opportunities for small firms, start-up companies and freelancers.
However, little is known about how these spaces support entrepreneurship in sparse regions
and smaller cities.

Thus, the paper aims to explore the co-working phenomenon in a smaller city context. The
primary aim is to provide an empirical illustration about co-working practices in South Wales
by examining the people using co-working sites, their motivations, expected outcomes and
perceived benefits, in contrast with founders` view.

The paper is divided into four sections. The first section introduces the co-working
phenomenon, followed by the methodology used for the paper. The empirical findings offer
an overview about the co-working practices in South Wales; and finally, wider implications
for policy makers and academics will be provided.

2. Co-working spaces

Co-working is an expanding global phenomenon mainly in urban areas and typically refers to
the new alternative workspace of the “freelance economy”. According to recent statistics
published by Deskmag (14), the number of co-working spaces grew every workday on
average by 4.5 spaces. Today, there is 5,780 co-working space with about 295,000 co-
workers worldwide (15).

There are many trends behind its successful expansion around the world. In the wake of the
2008 crisis more and more people have left the traditional workplace (either by choice or
otherwise) and have started a professional life on their own. Another parallel trend has been
the rapid rise of internet communication technologies (ICT). ICT has made work more mobile
and less geographically dependent (16). Toffler`s (17) “electronic cottage”, in which workers
could do work at home by using their personal computers, has come into existence. People
“no longer need a huddle”, mobile phones and laptops have replaced their immobile
ancestors (18), thus, workers are no longer bound to a single desk to operate the
technology: they can create, analyse and transform texts in the comfort of their own homes
or from other remote “third place” locations. There is also a financial and economic reason
that made entrepreneurs join co-working spaces. Entrepreneurs making the decision to join
co-working spaces are doing so for rational economic reasons (i.e. it saves money or has
some other benefit). Working in a shared space has obvious cost-savings: cheap work
arrangements through shared equipment and rent. The nature of work is also changing
which is also an important driving factor for current office evolution (18). Key to this evolution
is the continued growth of knowledge working, both as a percentage of the economy and of
the labour force (19). Knowledge workers frequently undertake a range of tasks and those
tasks can be done in different work spaces (20). Work has become more dependent on
knowledge and creativity. This highly skilled creative knowledge work is far more
collaborative; more and more people tend to work from remote locations where work is
cooperative rather than collocated.

Co-working is a broad term that has been rapidly expanding in recent years. A huge number
of quotes are available from the current literature but each co-working space has its own
definition of the term: they have significant differences in organizational purpose, service,
culture, field of work, size and business model amongst others depending on the .

Originally, the term refers to a collaborative work environment that provide support (moral,
emotional, professional, and financial), shared flexible facilities (infrastructure) and access to
a broad business and social network for a diverse group of professionals and entrepreneurs
to start and grow their businesses while working “alone together” or “alongside each other”
(21), and sharing the values of “collaboration, openness, community, accessibility and
sustainability” (22).

The biggest difference between a co-working space and a serviced office space is in the
amount of social interaction that takes place between the people who work there. Similarly,
co-working spaces differ from incubators because incubators offer support for businesses in
their start-up phase and are actively enable businesses to growth.

The intention of co-working space is to generate interaction, enhance creativity and

formulate a sense of community. Co-working is seen as a solution to “professional isolation”
(21): sharing the same space provides community to those workers who otherwise would not
enjoy relational component while working from home. Amongst other benefits (flexibility,
being able to mingle and work with like-minded individuals, better work-life balance, greater
job or career satisfaction), community, a sense of belonging, is also found in other
contributions as key in stimulating business development and networking (12,21–26).

Members are looking to increase profit through a managerial cultivation of social relationship
and a combination of complementary skills (21). They “strive for independence in the way
they make use of time, space and talent, yet long to be connected to other like-minded
people – and not only on a virtual basis but in spaces of everyday physical encounter. They
want to break out of the restricted and often solitary working conditions of office spaces or
private homes and instead establish models that foster professional activities in a leisure-like
atmosphere; they want maximum global flexibility including spending time in other creative
cities (where similar co-working spaces exist) without being cut off from the local community
sharing their mind-set” (27).

A number of activities and processes take place in co-working sites that stimulate different
kinds of entrepreneurial activities. Co-working spaces intentionally place diversity at the
heart of their culture in order to promote “organized serendipity” and ensure culture of
learning from different perspective. Co-working gives people more social interaction that is a
necessity for businesses in the creative field. Being surrounded by entrepreneurs on a daily
basis, co-workers are constantly learning and growing (12). Knowledge sharing through
networks is one of the key features of co-working spaces and one of the biggest benefits for
members (28). This can take both formally and informally: participating in professional
workshops, attending social events, etc. In additional, co-working spaces connect their
already strong internal community with an extensive external network (29).

The professional environment also contributes to business creation and development due to
the tangible and intangible benefits. Entrepreneurs and businesses are provided access to
other professionals doing related or complementary work that lower barriers to trying out
new ideas, and their transaction costs through reducing resource and information
expenditures (30). Co-working spaces help their members to find solution to problems that
they cannot necessarily easily solve or afford by themselves with the minimum of fuss.

Office layout and design also helps members to develop collaborative relations and facilitate
interactions between them. Members are free to decide how they prefer to use the space
and its features which facilitate the spirit of sharing and cooperation (26).

In some cases communities are stimulated by “community managers”: they host and look
after members, organize professional and social events, ensure that comfort and trust are
built amongst members, and create an environment where members share thoughts, ideas
and experience in order to help each other. Moreover, most of the spaces use virtual
platforms and real-time dashboards to support serendipity and collaboration: they list the
registered users and organize their skills in a cloud, and enable users to decide - based on
the skills of people available - whether to work from the co-working space or not.

Statistics, such as the global Deskmag survey (31) shows that 66% of co-workers decided to
start co-working because of the atmosphere in the space, and 57% goes to interact with
others (31). In additional, according to a more recent research conducted by Colleoni and
Arvidsson (32) amongst Milanese co-workers, most of the members joined the spaces to
get a sense of community (48%), to entertain networking activity (34%) and to break
isolation (55%).

Moreover, being present in a co-working space environment can positively influence one’s
own productivity, creativity, wellbeing and social embeddedness. For example 85% felt less
lonely and 75% reported to be more productive (31) since joining co-working spaces. Similar
results can be found in Colleoni and Arvidsson`s (32) report where 61% of co-workers
expanded their network of client and 62% their collaborators since accessing a co-working
space.

To conclude, these different contributions from academia and practice confirm that co-
working spaces provide supportive environments for diverse groups of businesses to flourish
through flexible and shared work settings. Co-workers join the spaces to bring “the social”
back into their working life and to operate complementary figures (32). Co-working spaces
are not only hubs but also seem to function relational milieus providing members with an
intermediate territory to enact distributed organizational practices made of continuously
negotiated relationships in the context where professional social interactions is
simultaneously physical and digital (32).

3. Methodology

Based on the existing literature on the topic and under the wider definition of co-working
spaces, IndyCube (18 office spaces across South Wales) and the Welsh Innovation Centre
for Enterprise (Welsh ICE) in Caerphilly have been identified as the only significant co-
working spaces in South Wales, and therefore are the spaces considered in this paper.

The primary research conducted included a combination of qualitative and quantitative

research methods. Qualitative research methods included user participation in the co-
working spaces, semi-structured interviews with founders/owners, informal conversations
and observations in the different IndyCube spaces across South Wales (Cardiff Castle
Quarter, Cardiff Bay, Cardiff Trade Street, Business Loft Newport, Swansea and Cwmbran)
as well as at Welsh ICE in Caerphilly.

Based on the initial findings from the qualitative research an extensive questionnaire (36
questions) was developed for co-working members of IndyCube (Cardiff, Newport and
Swansea) and Welsh ICE to understand their motivations for joining, the benefits of being a
member, the areas that could be developed further, and to explore what services provided
by managers affect positively their entrepreneurial activities. 46 completed questionnaires
(Table 1) were used to illustrate co-working practices from member`s point of view.

Table 1 Number of respondents by location

Name of the space Number of respondents

Cardiff Bay 19
Cardiff Caste Arcade 1
Swansea 3
Business Loft Newport 5
Welsh ICE 18
Total 46

During semi-structured interviews, three founders (two IndyCube and one Welsh ICE
founder) were asked to provide information about their motivation, philosophy and model as
well as the tools used to support member companies to flourish, interact and collaborate.

4. Empirical illustration: co-working practices in South Wales

The findings reveal that the two co-working space models, IndyCube and the Welsh ICE
represent two different approaches and philosophies, and have different target audience and
organizational purpose as summarized by Table 2.

Table 2 Key characteristics of ICE and IndyCube

Welsh ICE IndyCube

Location Caerphilly 18 spaces across South Wales
“Changing the world of
Learning from personal experience
entrepreneurs” by providing
of how a community of young
spaces where they can grow
Personal entrepreneurs can offer support for
their businesses
motivation each other
Not creating businesses rather
Helping businesses to start and grow
supporting them to grow
Providing creative environment for Providing high-end office spaces
Focus entrepreneurs with a sense of and infrastructure where
community belonging communities can form naturally
Number of
150 200 in a given months
members
Tenants by Mainly entrepreneurs and start-ups
Mainly entrepreneurs and start-
professional (in early and mature stages), youth
ups (in mature stage)
activity start-ups
`Professional, scientific and technical
`Arts, entertainment and
Tenants by activities` (33%)
recreation` (48%)
sectors `Information and communication`
(33%)
 Varied with the opportunity to
Type of
Varied use any IndyCube site across
memberships
South Wales
Open-office
Private offices Open-office
Workspace
Meeting rooms Meeting room
layout
Canteen Coffee corner
Coffee shop
Modern, creative, colourful but Plain office design (white walls,
Design
balanced modern office furniture)
Business address
Reception – front-office services
Business address
Use of printer, scanner, copy
Use of printer, scanner, copy
machine
machine
Broadband
Services Broadband
Discount in Canteen and in Coffee
Professional events (provided by
shop
IndyCube Venture)
Mentoring, training, coaching
Professional events (organized by
staff)
Financial – Government, funding
trust , public and private sector
Financial support through
Types of support Moral, emotional
IndyCube Venture
Trainings
Social and professional events
Unique mix of incubator, accelerator Accelerator and co-working
Model
and co-working space space

4.1 IndyCube

IndyCube is a co-working space provider with 18 co-working sites across South Wales. At
present more than 200 workers operate out of IndyCube’s sites in any given month. Each of
the co-working spaces provides fast Wi-Fi, meeting rooms and high-end office infrastructure.
They also run events to bring together members from the different co-working spaces.
Moreover, members have the opportunity to work in any co-working site across South
Wales. This philosophy allows members to integrate in other local communities, share
knowledge, socialize and build up networks. Via IndyCube Venture, which operates as an
accelerator “arm” for IndyCube, management expertise, mentoring and support from
industry-specific specialists are accessible.

Semi-structured interviews with founders highlighted that IndyCube`s mission is to help

established enterprises to flourish by creating spaces where people could work alongside
each other, for the benefit of themselves and their fellow co-workers. Co-workers are
encouraged to make the offices their own; therefore each location’s ‘character’ is created by
the people who work there. Founders believe that members do not need to be “managed” by
hosts or community moderators; their experience is that the majority of collaboration and
community feel tends to happen within the office facilitated by members. One example is the
`Fresh Air Fridays` organized by a member of IndyCube Ferndale with the aim of providing
coaching to help to achieve a more positive outlook in every sphere of life.

However, results of the questionnaire survey revealed that `getting a community spirit` is not
the number one driving force of most people to access IndyCube. The main reason
members gave for joining was the opportunity to meet potential investors, and because
IndyCube provides high-end office infrastructure. The qualitative research findings revealed
that the level of collaboration, community activity and social events within the IndyCube
spaces was quite limited. This was supported in the findings of the questionnaire where 90%
of members said that they would be interested in more events (social, networking,
professional) and 75% said they have not started collaboration with a fellow co-worker.
Other findings revealed that 70% of members would be interested in mentoring,
administrative/reception and professional support to further develop their entrepreneurial
skills.

IndyCube sites in most places consist of open offices and coffee corners. However members
generally agreed that the shared office environment helps co-located entrepreneurs to
overcome the loneliness, the research also found that members wanted more space for
socialising as well as more space for privacy and self-reflection that would help to develop
particular skills and activities.

Members also highlighted the diverse member mix and the possibility to use all co-working
sites across South Wales as strengths of IndyCube because it enables them to connect
people from diversified lines of businesses and other communities as well. 80% of members
did report an increase in income and 60% said they felt more productive since working in
IndyCube.

4.2 Welsh ICE

Welsh ICE is home to more than 85 companies and more than 150 employees at its
Caerphilly centre. Half of ICE`s members are funded by the Welsh Government, and the
staff can also assist members to reach other kinds of financing through Fairwood Trust. ICE
also hosts projects in conjunction with Business Wales, The Prince’s Trust, Cardiff Start,
Cardiff Metropolitan University, UnLtd and many others.

Welsh ICE is a creative environment for new entrepreneurs who are interested in feeding off
each other’s ideas and enjoying a high level of practical support from experienced business
owners acting as mentors. Welsh ICE was born as a co-working space aimed to foster
connections and synergies among member businesses. It has an organizational platform
composed of events designed to create connections among members; newsletter with
information and news about the co-workers and the activities organized in the space; and
staff who deal with the management and organization of the space and with the facilitation of
the interactions and relationships between members.

Welsh ICE is a space where community building is a conscious process; the management
ensures that the newcomers fit into the community in terms of mind-set and professional
activity. Apparently, a natural selection also applies from a community point of view: like-
minded, open, creative people whose personality fits to the ICE`s philosophy join the
community. The positive attitude, the sociable and enjoyable atmosphere, and the
opportunity of personal and professional development attract the people to work at ICE.

One of ICE`s missions is to create a more accessible, network of pathways to entry for
would-be entrepreneurs with the support they need, from the first moment their ideas comes
into being. In additional, Welsh ICE supports graduate entrepreneurship in two ways: it helps
talented young people to kick start their businesses through funds and mentoring, and
encourages member companies to hire youngsters.

Based on the findings, more than 60% of ICE population belongs to age group 21-26. ICE is
mainly rented by start-up companies: 38% of the members are entrepreneurs and 38%
works for small companies with less than 5 employees. 75% of those who work for small
companies with less than 5 employees belong to age group 21-26. This finding further
confirms the success of Welsh ICE in terms of supporting youth employment and
entrepreneurship.

The presence of “fun, loving and mutually supportive” community of people is confirmed by
the results of the questionnaire survey. The main reason members gave for joining ICE was
that ICE provides a social and enjoyable atmosphere (70%) and a vibrant community (50%).
Other findings revealed that 44% of members have started collaboration with a fellow co-
worker. Events play a major role in the everyday life of ICE member. ICE offers opportunities
to co-workers to get to know each other, and to get in contact with the public, and ensure the
inflow of external knowledge. Moreover, social and professional events organized by
members are also popular networking options.

Besides the importance of events, members highlighted the supporting role of common
areas (coffee shop, canteen) because it enables them to meet other like-minded people.
They are generally pleased with common spaces and experience those spaces as
stimulating for discussion and networking. Those are good places to catch up with other co-
workers and discuss relevant matters on a daily basis. However members believe that being
located under the same roof is only one condition to networking and collaboration. The staff
is seen as a central figure in supporting trust that enables networking and social interactions
among members.

5. Conclusion

In co-working spaces the emphasis is on intangible factors and social aspects such as
entrepreneurial networking, mentoring (both from fellow members, hosts and from the social
and business network) through flexible, informal settings, which enhance possession,
access and use of different forms of capital (social, human and financial) in a creative
environment. In additional, the space itself (layout and design), the operating mode
(supporting tools), and the diversity and mentality of professionals who form communities
also stimulate entrepreneurial activities and internal dynamics.

This paper illustrated co-working space practices in terms of supporting member businesses
in South Wales. The key difference between the two models can be attributed to the
operating mode, the management style and the target group of the space. Welsh ICE is a
co-working space particularly designed to support networking and facilitate relationships,
and where members do not just interact but also exchange information and engage with
each other on fields of interest. IndyCube believes the power of self-managed autonomous
communities; founders provide sites across South Wales and let people to use the spaces
that facilitate “natural” relationships and interactions among fellow co-workers.

It can be concluded that the simple co-location of member businesses do not facilitate
collaboration and interaction in co-working spaces. However, there are particular tools that
can be used as in the case of Welsh ICE: community facilitators (the staff) play a key role in
stimulating interactions among member businesses through the creation of trust-based
environments. This underlines the importance of the organization style and platform in
fostering the soft aspects of entrepreneurship.

This paper looked at IndyCube sites only in cities (Cardiff, Newport and Swansea). A
comparative research of IndyCube sites in smaller towns would allow to understand the role
of context factors that shape co-working practices in the less urbanized areas of South
Wales. This would give a profound picture how co-working spaces differ from each other,
how their presences influence local communities and `to-be` entrepreneurs, and the
everyday life of their current member businesses. Moreover, this might give an
understanding of how co-working spaces might contribute to economic regeneration in a
sparse region.

Of particular concern is the extent to which the public sector should contribute to financing
co-working spaces in a sparse region. Due to their spontaneous and flexible aspects, public
authorities would need to find new funding tools that are adaptable to the entrepreneurial
and co-working mind-set. One possibility might be to provide funding for entrepreneurs to be
based in co-working spaces that would enable them to work in a more community oriented
manner. Other option might be co-operation between universities and co-working sites in
order to support graduate entrepreneurship.

Co-working spaces might be used as educational spaces: as part of the entrepreneurship

curriculum, universities could offer opportunities for students to experience what is like being
an entrepreneur, as well as provide support to set up businesses and enhance their social
capital in co-working space environments.

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