Insights from coworking spaces as unique service organizations: the role of physical and social elements

This chapter puts forward the elements of service environment termed as 'servicescape' that will infl uence the behavioural intentions (loyalty, word of mouth, and recommendation) in service organizations, which provides service environment as their predominant offering. Interestingly, there is a growing group of service fi rms where consumers pay to consume the environment rather treating the environment as a facilitator of their purchase of merchandise or services. One such service environment focused business is the coworking spaces. They are business that offers the physical and social environment for consumption. It is an environment where creative, entrepreneurs and knowledge workers work in a commercial space, work on fl exible work stations with a host of facilities at their disposal. These coworking spaces are designed to create a productive physical and social atmosphere. We propose an enriched servicescape framework specifi c to this industry and label it as 'Coworkingscape'. The conceptual focus of this chapter enables contribution in the fi eld of service environment marketing and management. The practical implication of this chapter will be of help to coworking space providers/ managers to further plan, design and manage the coworking spaces.