Collaboration of corporates with coworking spaces: different pathways to develop innovation capabilities

• Published in: R & D management 2025-01, Vol.55 (1), p.282-299
• Main Authors: Demir, Ferhat, Lukes, Martin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0033-6807; 1467-9310
• DOI: 10.1111/radm.12697

Although academia has witnessed increasing interest in coworking spaces over the past decade, the corporate perspective on utilizing such spaces has not been thoroughly studied. This paper investigates corporate goals, activities, and outcomes of corporate–coworking collaboration by examining 11 different cases in which corporates engage in coworking spaces. We find that, based on their goals, corporates choose different collaboration pathways to enhance their innovation capabilities. We call these pathways explorer, startup hunter, implementer, and transformer. Coworking spaces play an essential role by hosting and orchestrating key open innovation actors, resources, and activities such as scanning, scouting, community building, co‐development, and learning. They are emerging as an open innovation platform that can trigger sensing, seizing, and transforming capabilities of corporates. Our study contributes to the innovation management and the coworking space literature and offers practical implications for both corporates and coworking spaces.