This document provides an overview of coworking spaces including a definition, reasons for their rise, differences from traditional offices and working from home, examples of top coworking spaces in Malaysia, a case study of the collaboration between coworking space provider Common Ground and Air Asia, benefits of using coworking spaces for organizations and entrepreneurs, sustainability issues and challenges, and references.

1. COWORKING:
CONCEPT, ISSUES AND
CASES
Prepared by:
Alya Izzatti Binti Azmin 2017603648
Muhammad Luqman Bin Sulaiman Azari 2017639804
Norhazwanie Binti Sudin 2017471828
MBA,
ARSHAD AYUB GRADUATE BUSINESS SCHOOL
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA SHAH ALAM

2. DEFINITION
Shared offices that offer mostly operational efficiency.
Build social ties for knowledge sharing
Coworking-spaces connect entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds at one physical
space and opportunity to build an innovation ecosystem of mutual benefits.
Promise of a collaboration capability that generates benefits
1
People who are self-employed, employer or working for different employers, typically
so as to share equipment, ideas and knowledge.

3. Why choose coworking?
2
Estimated that more than one million people will be working in almost 14,000
coworking spaces by 2018.
Reasons for rise of co-working:
• Increased availability of personal computers.
• Expansion of internet connectivity.
• Availability of free email services.
• Motivated to work independently as self-employed.
• Advantages of virtual work :
• To keep work life balance
• Disadvantages of virtual work
• Feeling isolated
• Miscommunication with peers

4. Differences between working at home, coworking and conventional
office
Working from home
Working in an organisation’s
central workplace
Coworking Centre
Collaborate virtually
with other affiliated
members of
organisation
Collaborate face-to-face
with other cowork
centre members (un-
affiliated to worker’s
organisation)
Collaborate Face-to-face with
other affiliated members of
organisation
3

5. Examples of top coworking spaces in Malaysia
Komune, KL Co-labs, Shah Alam
Common Ground, Damansara Heights 4

6. Case of coworking concept collaboration
between Common Ground and Air Asia
5
Common Ground, one of the prominent coworking space provider in Malaysia. Locations of coworking spaces include
several areas in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Petaling Jaya, Manila and Bangkok.
Collaboration with AirAsia’s
MyCorporate programme
• Flexible flight adjustments
• Priority services
• Exclusive savings & benefits
• Loyalty rewards
Common Ground’s package to Air Asia:
• Able to work across Common Ground
venues located in Malaysia.
• Addition of venues at international
level - able to tap its regional network

7. Other partnerships of Common
Ground
Yoodo (by Celcom) - Common Ground,
Damansara Heights
• To encourage innovative and creative
thinking
• Market position and target market to be
distinct from Celcom
6
Petronas - Common Ground, Ampang
• Staffs from selected departments to be
stationed there to promote
innovativeness.

8. Benefits to partners using Common
Ground coworking case
Mutual benefits
gained by coworking
space provider
(Common Ground)
and its members (Air
Asia, Yoodo &
Petronas).
Satisfying subscribing
company’s aim for
implementing
coworking concept as
an innovative work
culture.
Better employee
satisfaction (according
to reviews by employees
in www.coworker.com)
Networking
opportunity among
entrepreneurs and
corporate members.
7

9. Benefits to organisations using coworking
concept
COLLABORATION
FACTORS
Awareness of mutual
reliance between
individuals and
organization
Interdependence
A collective energy that
brings different parties
together to produce a
mutually outcome
Co-creation
Trustful field creation
that supports the
building of trustful
relationship
Trust
Able to freely decide
and conduct one’s
development as
individual
Self- Determination
Knowledge and
awareness of other’s
character, feeling and
behavior
Self-Awareness
8

10. SUSTAINABILITY OF COWORKING: issues &
challenges
=$COST VS BENEFIT
1. Entrepreneurs required to pay to access coworking space.
2. Access fee will be charged to use facilities such as meeting room,
conduct events.
3. Invest continuously into their network positions while facing
uncertain benefits
SUSTAINABILITY ISSUE
1. Low margin, low volume – Less of number of customer with low
price. Scale up to high price might cause high competition
2. Low differentiation – Difficult to distinguish the company, people
easily copying what the company is conducting.
3. Low barriers to entry – ease of competition and new entrants
9

11. ISSUES OF COWORKING?
1. Engaging with other entrepreneurs or find
the right network is challenging
2. Isolation often happen to minority in the
network.
1. Established entrepreneur tend to subcontract some of their engagement to the
newcomer.
2. Newcomer has to set reasonable margin. Closed deadlines disabled them to have
chance to evaluate their own business.
3. Thus, instead of developing their business, they remain dependent to established
entrepreneur due to lack of resources and client.
SOCIAL SEGREGATION
EXPLOITATION
10

12. ISSUES OF COWORKING?
1. Conflicts can affect decision making and lead to team member leave the business.
2. Collaboration of entrepreneur hold common targets and values. Cooperation,
trust, and mutual learning is values that cannot be surpassed.
3. If the values is deteriorated, may lead to early break-up of project.
CONFLICT AND DISTRUST
11

13. Challenges of implementing coworking culture
The need for a clear objective
• A flexible working environment may encourage collaboration, but productivity should be the main focus
Importance of good community manager
• From recruitment stage when forming community.
• Must be well revised with the aim of the project, place and community culture and able to control them
Security of intellectual capital
• Open working spaces with shared amenities like public wi-fi is less secure.
• May risk information leak.
Focus on functionality of coworking space
• While it is supposed to be cost-saving for individuals or small groups, it may work the opposite way if there
is increase of members and time of leasing.
12

14. References
Bouncken, R. B., Aslam, M. M., & Reuschl, A. J. (2018). The dark side of entrepreneurship in coworking-spaces. In Inside the mind of the entrepreneur (pp. 135-147). Springer,
Cham.
Castilho M. F. and Quandt C. O.(2017). Collaborative Capability in Coworking Spaces: Convenience Sharing or Community Building? Technology Innovation Management Review,
7(12) Pg.39.
SME Biz, (2018), A partnership based on common goals, retrieved from https://www.thestar.com.my/business/smebiz/2018/09/10/a-partnership-based-on-common-
goals/#HQo8OElaovX4qpaD.99
Chan, E. J., (2018), Cover Story: Community building a major part of coworking, retrieved from http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/cover-story-community-building-major-
part-coworking
Jones Lang LaSalle IP, Inc, (2018), Coworking's unstoppable market growth: Analyzing the rise of coworking and flexible workspace, retrieved from http://www.us.jll.com/united-
states/en-us/research/property/office/coworking-market-growth
Levels P. (2017). Most coworking spaces don’t make money; here’s how they can adapt to survive the future. From https://levels.io/coworking-space-economics/
Kubátová, J. (2014, September). The Cause and Impact of the Development of Coworking in the Current Knowledge Economy. In Proceedings of the European Conference on
Knowledge Management (Vol. 2, pp. 571-577).