The goal of the coworking research project is to identify how significant coworking is in
The coworking project has 3 phases:
1. Census of
Using secondary research, outreach to the coworking community, leveraging our network of small business experts and working with coworking directory providers, Emergent Research will develop a census of U.S. coworking facilities by state.
For the purposes of this census, a facility will be deemed a coworking facility if it meets four criteria: (1) the facility self-identifies as a coworking facility; (2) the facility offers public membership options commonly associated with coworking; (3) the primary business of the facility is coworking; and (4) the facility is currently active.
The coworking facility census will be useful in several ways. It will provide a directory of coworking facilities. It will establish the current size of the coworking market, and it will provide a universe for survey sampling.
2. Facility and User Surveys and Interviews
Emergent Research will develop and deploy two surveys. The first will survey coworking facility owners and identify key facility statistics such as size of the facility, number of desks and offices, services offered, number and type of members, etc.
The second will survey coworking facility users and will identify demographic and usage statistics such as user firm size, age of firm, number of employees, type of business, reasons for using coworking, etc.
In-person and telephone interviews will be used to augment the survey research and to develop case studies.
3. Coworking's Role in Starting and Incubating Businesses
Both the interviews and surveys will be structured to develop an understanding on the use of coworking facilities to start and incubate small businesses.
4. Coworking and Social Media
Working with our research partner, The Society for New Communications Research, we examine the role social media plays in coworking.
